ft (fleck oi+cfycn^ 



A BRIEF ACCOUNT 

OF 

THE CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 



JAMES CLARKE & CO. PRINTERS. 



A BRIEF ACCOUNT 



THE CONSTITUTION 



ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 

AND OF THE 

QUESTIONS CONCERNING PATRONAGE 
AND THE SECESSION. 

BY THE LATE 

REV. SIR HENRY MONCREIFF WELLWOOD, BART. D.D. 

REVISED AND EDITED, WITH A SHORT PliEFACE, BY 

SIR JAMES WELLWOOD MONCREIFF, BART. 

ONE OF THE SENATORS OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE- 

SECOND EDITION. 



EDINBURGH: 

PRINTED FOR ROBERT CADELL, EDINBURGH; 
WHIT TAKER & CO. AND JAMES RIDGEWAY, LONDON. 

MDCCCXXXIII. 



PREFACE. 



The statement and observations, to which the 
Editor has ventured to give the prefixed Title, 
originally formed part of an Appendix to " An 
Account of the Life and Writings of John 
Erskine, D.D. late one of the Ministers of Edin- 
burgh," which was written and published by the 
Author in the year 1818. In the first design, he 
seems chiefly to have intended to afford some 
useful information to those readers of the prin- 
cipal work, to whom the peculiar constitution, 
and practical government, of the Established 
Church of Scotland might be unknown, or whose 
acquaintance with them might be imperfect or 
incorrect. In the course of executing this de- 
sign, however, he had been gradually led to en- 
ter, more fully than he had at first contemplated, 
into some subjects of very great importance in 



the later History of the Church. He has, in par- 
ticular, taken occasion to give a concise general 
view of the leading- points in the origin and pro- 
gress of the questions, which, from the Reforma- 
tion downwards, had been more or less in dis- 
cussion in the Church and among the people of 
Scotland, concerning rights of patronage in ec- 
clesiastical benefices, and the nomination and 
induction of ministers to the parish churches of 
the Establishment : And, in treating of that sub- 
ject, it became necessary for him to give some 
account of the causes and attendant circum- 
stances of the remarkable event, which formed the 
most important consequence of those discussions 
— the secession of a portion of the members of the 
Church from her superintendence and commu- 
nion, while they still adhered to all her doctrines, 
and in general acknowledged the same standards 
of faith, order, and ecclesiastical government. 

The Author died in August 1827, at the age 
of seventy-seven. Even at that late period, he 
certainly did not anticipate, and, it is clear, that 
in 1818, when he published the Life of Erskine, 
the idea had never occurred to him, that the 
same questions were so soon to become the sub- 
ject of the keen and active agitation exhibited 
at the present moment. And, least of all, could 



vii 



it have entered into his contemplation, that any 
portion of those, who professed to have adopted 
all the views and tenets of the original conscien- 
tious seceders from the Church, were to find a new 
cause of controversy, in theories respecting the 
lawfulness of that Establishment, of which he 
recognised them as legitimate descendants, and 
which, on all points save the one great subject of 
difference, he evidently believed to be held in 
reverence by all the respectable men of his own 
day. Such an idea must have been very foreign to 
the thoughts of the Author, when he wrote this 
Treatise, and more particularly when he ex- 
pressed himself as he did in the passages on the 
89th and 90th pages of it as now printed. 

It must not be supposed, therefore, that this 
small work contains, or was intended to con- 
tain, any thing like a complete statement either 
of the principles on which the constitution of 
the Church rests, or of the history of the laws 
relating to patronage and the induction of mini- 
sters, sufficient for the perfect elucidation of all 
the controversies and speculations at this time 
prevalent. The latter subject would require a 
more precise statement of the acts of Parliament, 
and of the General Assembly, previous to the 



viii 

Revolution : The former, if it be, indeed, a sub- 
ject of open speculation, will no doubt call forth 
talents, and patriotism, and sober Christian prin- 
ciple, sufficient for the task. 

But, as the Author was himself a minister of 
the Established Church during fifty-six years ; 
as he was, through nearly all that period, and 
till his death, an active and leading member of 
the Church Courts, and had more than ordinary 
opportunities of becoming acquainted with the 
state and feelings of the clergy, and of the peo- 
ple, throughout the Church ; as he had lived in 
habits of intimacy with all the eminent men of 
the former age, and had from them received his 
impressions of the true course and progress of 
those transactions, in which they had been 
themselves among the principal actors ; and as 
he lived, in full possession of his faculties, to an 
age, when the heats of party feeling, and all the 
sources of contention, had subsided, and when 
the spirit of Christian charity was in a great 
degree predominant in his mind ; it has appear- 
ed to the writer of this Preface, that it may not 
be unacceptable to the public at this time, and 
may possibly serve the cause of truth, and con- 
tribute to the welfare of the Church, to repub- 



IX 



lisli in this separate form the latest authentic 
statement of his views on these important sub- 
jects. 

The Editor has no intention to express any 
opinion of his own, in this place, on the various 
views which may be taken of the question con- 
cerning patronage, and the admission of mini- 
sters, in the present circumstances of the Church 
of Scotland. He humbly thinks, that it is a 
subject which requires very calm deliberation ; 
and that irremediable mischief may be done, 
even under the guidance or with the aid of the 
warmest friends of the Church, by rushing 
hastily into any crude and ill-considered scheme. 
There certainly may be reasonable differences 
of opinion among men equally upright and con- 
scientious, and equally attached to the perma- 
nent stability of the Church of Scotland, as the 
great and only security of the continuance and dif- 
fusion of true religion in our country, with regard 
to the course which sound wisdom would point 
out for adoption at the present moment. Some 
may think that no measure is necessary. Others, 
reflecting calmly on the circumstances and state 
of the nation, may be of opinion, that some 
considerable change of practice, at least, is called 
for j but that the law, as it stands, under the 



X 



statute of Queen Anne, might, under the powers 
of the Church Courts, be rendered sufficiently 
effective to the only legitimate end in view. A 
third class, reverting, perhaps, too keenly to the 
spirit of the old controversy, may think that a 
repeal of that law, and a return to some prin- 
ciple equivalent to that of the act of King Wil- 
liam 1690, ought to be insisted for. And there 
may be still others among the sincere friends of 
the Establishment, who, from erroneous, or, at 
any rate, particular, views of the ancient con- 
stitution, or from abstract theories transferred 
incautiously, under various impulses, from other 
very different subjects of legislation, are desirous 
that the work of change should be carried even 
beyond the principle which satisfied all men at 
the Revolution 1683. Amidst these conflicting 
views, there is great danger that, in the heats of 
contention, the important object — that of provid- 
ing each parish with a minister, at once able, 
learned, pious, sound in doctrine and in morals, 
and, withal, suited and acceptable to the people — 
may be lost sight of, and at last defeated ; while 
the avowed adversaries of the Church reap the 
advantage, in bringing her very existence into 
peril. 

But, in considering these views, it surely 



xi 



ought to be remembered by all wise and con- 
siderate men, tbat there is a great difference in 
principle between that which can be easily done 
within the Ecclesiastical Constitution as it stands, 
and any thing which requires the interposition 
of the Civil Legislature. The one is matter of 
internal regulation, which has defined limits ; 
the other implies a change of that constitution, 
which takes it out of the hands of those who 
really understand it, and who would watch over 
it with the honourable attachment of men who 
know its value to the people, and the bounds of 
which change no man can know. If the real 
end, and not the assumed means, shall be singly 
looked to, it cannot be known that the powers 
of the Church are insufficient, until the experi- 
ment shall be fairly tried, under a calm and con- 
scientious co-operation of men of all parties in 
the Church. 

It is under impressions of this kind, and from 
a sincere desire to promote unity and concord 
among the real friends of the Establishment, 
that the Editor, trusting that, in doing so, he 
does not overstep the bounds of propriety, ven- 
tures to observe, that the spirit of temperance, 
forbearance, and conciliation, in which the fol- 
lowing Treatise is written, ought to recommend 



xii 



it to the attention of all men who are sincerely 
attached to the Church and to the country of 
Scotland, and who estimate aright the reality 
of a Christian people spread throughout every 
district of the land of their fathers. Nor ought 
it to lessen the weight of the calm moderation 
of views, with which the Author contemplated 
this subject, that, during all his life, he was the 
constant and firm supporter of the rights and 
interests of the people, and the warm and active 
friend of civil and religious liberty— and that he 
had no one object more sincerely at heart, than 
that all the ministers inducted into the vacant 
parishes, should be equally qualified for the sta- 
tions assigned to them, by meeting the wishes 
and affections of the people, and by all the qua- 
lities of learning, sound doctrine, principle, and 
conscientious zeal, calculated to sustain their use- 
fulness and respectability in the parish, and the ge- 
neral character of the ministers of the Church. 

They will be best prepared to think and to act 
in the same spirit, who have most justly appre- 
ciated the benefits which the Established Church 
has been the instrument of conferring on Scot- 
land. For, whoever shall take a correct and 
candid view of the history and condition of the 
people of this country, since the era of the Re- 



xiii 



volution, and duly estimates the value of sound 
religious principle in the great body of the po- 
pulation, must acknowledge, that to that Esta- 
blishment, under all the defects which can be im- 
puted to it, much of their prosperity, and of the 
peace, comfort, and advancement in arts and 
knowledge, which have distinguished them, must 
be attributed. 

And, for the information of those to whom 
the circumstances may not be familiar, and for 
fixing the attention of those, to whom they may 
be so familiar that they may have ceased to 
mark the importance of them, it may not be 
useless here to add to the details regarding the 
constitution of the Church, which are given in 
the following pages, these indisputable facts : — 
That it is an establishment, in which every 
minister is bound to reside in his parish, and 
must discharge the duties of his own place, un- 
less disabled by age or sickness : That there is 
no such thing as plurality of benefices known 
within it :* That there is no right in any mini- 

* The discussions which have taken place as to pluralities, have 
related only to a few cases of Professorships in the Universities 
being joined with livings in the same town, and not at all to any 
plurality of parish benefices, no such case having ever existed ; 
and even that other species of pluralities has been in a great mea- 
sure practically abolished. 

1 



xiv 

ster to draw tithes in the proper sense, the livings 
(except a few in the towns, which are not paid 
from tithes, and are otherwise specially regulated) 
being all fixed to stipendiary payments by the 
yearly value of grain, (ascertained by authorita- 
tive county tables,) the amount of each stipend 
being determined by the Judges of the Supreme 
Civil Court, acting as Commissioners of Parlia- 
ment : That the livings consist of sums varying 
from £150 to £500 — there being very few, if any, 
which, in ordinary years, exceed the latter sum : 
And that, with a few exceptions of town parishes 
particularly regulated, these stipends are paid en- 
tirely by the landholders, occasioning no inter- 
ference of interests between the clergyman and 
the great body of his parishioners. 

These things are not stated, as affording any 
reasons why clear errors or abuses should not be 
corrected, They are only brought into notice, 
in order that ail persons of candour and reflec- 
tion may be enabled to distinguish, between 
whatever can be said on a single point of the 
laws which regulate the practical working of 
the Constitution, and the averment or suppo- 
sition of essential faults in the principles of the 
Constitution itself; and that they may be in- 
duced to proceed with dispassionate care and 



XV 



caution to the consideration of any measures 
which may be proposed, 

With regard to any views of a different kind, 
the writer of this Preface is persuaded, and verily 
believes, that, though plausible theories, skilfully 
invented, and industriously circulated, to catch 
the spirit of the passing moment, may, for a time, 
be imagined to have had a partial success in the 
country, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 
as by law established, is too deeply rooted in the 
affections of the great body of the people, to be 
shaken by the light wind of every novel doctrine ; 
and that, as it has already come through many 
struggles, it will yet survive, to shed the be- 
nign influence of pure Christianity over the hills 
and valleys of our land, long after all such vain 
theories shall have been consigned to oblivion. 

Perhaps it is unnecessary to mention, except 
for the sake of correctness, that, in revising a 
paper like this, which the Author himself states 
to have been very hastily composed, the Editor 
has thought it right to make some slight changes 
of words and phrases, where accuracy seemed to 
require them. 

JAMES W. MONCREIFF. 



Moray Place, Edinburgh, Feb, 26, 1833. 



A BRIEF ACCOUNT, 
&c. 



The object of the Author, in this short treatise, is, to 
give an outline of the Ecclesiastical Constitution of Scot- 
land, and a general view of some of the more recent 
periods of its Church History. 

By an Act of the Parliament of Scotland, 1706, cap. 
6, entitled, an " Act for securing the Protestant Religion 
and Presbyterian Church Government," which is incor- 
porated and verbatim repeated in the Treaty of Union 
of England and Scotland, and declared to be a funda- 
mental article and condition thereof, it is " provided and 
declared, that the true Protestant religion, contained in 
the Confession of Faith, with the form and purity of 
worship then in use within the Church of Scotland, and 
its Presbyterian church government and discipline, that 
is to say, the government of the church, by kirk-sessions, 
presbyteries, provincial synods, and general assemblies, 
all established by the acts of Parliament before referred 
to, pursuant to the Claim of Right, shall remain and 
continue unalterable ; and that the said Presbyterian 
government shall be the only government of the church 
within the kingdom of Scotland.^ 



2 



Under this constitution, as previously established by the 
Laws of Scotland, Civil and Ecclesiastical, every parish 
has a kirk-session, consisting of the parish minister or 
ministers, and of elders selected from the most respectable 
inhabitants of the parish, who are solemnly ordained to 
their office in presence of the congregation. The number 
of elders is not limited. It cannot be less than two to 
constitute a kirk-session, in the smallest parishes ; and 
should, in general, be proportioned to the extent and 
population of each parish. When vacancies occur in the 
eldership, they are supplied by other respectable indivi- 
duals, elected by the minister and elders who survive. 
If, when a vacancy occurs, the kirk-session does not then 
consist of three to make a quorum, the presbytery of 
the district has the power to appoint two or more of their 
* own number, to be associated with the minister or ministers 
of the parish, in filling up the vacancies, so as to restore 
the kirk-session to its legal functions. 

To the kirk-session is entrusted the ordinary manage- 
ment of the parochial poor, the application of the weekly 
collections made at the church for their benefit, and of 
any voluntary donations which they receive in aid of the 
weekly collections. When these funds are not sufficient 
to provide for the poor, a joint meeting of the heritors 
and kirk-session is empowered and required, by various 
acts of Parliament, to assess the parish, in order to make 
up the deficiency ; the one half of the assessment being 
raised from the landlords, and the other from the tenants. 
It should be mentioned, at the same time, that the kirk- 
session is entitled to retain in their own hands the one 



3 



half of the collections made at the church, to defray the 
expense of the clerks and officers of the inferior eccle- 
siastical courts, and to meet the demands for occasional 
charities, not included in the ordinary management of 
the poor. It is not immaterial to mention these particulars, 
either as they bring into view a considerable department 
of parochial labour, or as they contain the substance of 
the Scottish laws relating to the poor. And it deserves 
to be added, that, though the latest of those laws is as 
old as the time of William and Mary, there was scarcely 
any regular assessment for the poor, which was continued 
for a length of time, in any parish of Scotland, before 
the year 1755. As long as there was no secession of 
Presbyterians from the Established Church, the weekly 
collections, under the management of the kirk-sessions, 
were in general found sufficient for the maintenance of the 
poor. In some years of peculiar hardship or scarcity, 
such as the four last years of the seventeenth century, or 
the year 1740, voluntary assistance was no doubt given, 
and in some instances temporary assessments were re- 
sorted to, to enable the kirk-sessions to meet such unusual 
emergencies. But on all ordinary occasions, the resources 
of the kirk-sessions were considered as sufficient, and con- 
tinued to be so, at least as late as 1755.* 

Besides the case of the poor, the kirk- session has a 
general inspection of the morals of the parishioners, and 
a right to administer the discipline of the Church, accord- 
ing to established laws. To the effect of inflicting eccle- 

* The members of the kirk-session act gratuitously. — Ep. 



4 



siastical censures, it has the power to institute processes, 
to cite parties and witnesses, to examine witnesses on 
oath, and to pronounce sentences, according to the evi- 
dence adduced. But both its citations and its sentences 
depend on ecclesiastical authority alone, and seldom either 
receive or require any assistance from the civil power. 

The proceedings of a kirk-session are matter of re- 
cord ; and the record is regularly kept, so as to be pre- 
served or extracted for the benefit of the parties, or for 
the information or the inspection of the Courts of Review. 
Every proceeding or sentence of a kirk-session is subject 
to the review of the presbytery of the district ; and can 
be brought there, either by a reference made by the kirk- 
session itself, by a complaint at the instance of any mem- 
ber of the court who may be dissatisfied, or by an appeal 
from the parties who may think themselves aggrieved. 
If any striking irregularity, or any real injury, can be sub- 
stantiated, the control of the presbytery is always suffi- 
cient to correct or redress it. But the usual manage- 
ment of the kirk- sessions is favourable to all the best 
interests of the parishioners ; and comparatively few 
instances occur, in which it becomes a just subject either 
of complaint or remonstrance. 

The Presbytery is the court immediately above the 
kirk-session. A presbytery consists of the ministers of 
several contiguous parishes, who are eoo officio members, 
and of an elder from each kirk- session within the district, 
who, by the present usage, is elected at the end of every 
six months. The presbytery, besides being a Court of 
Review, to affirm, reverse, or alter the sentences of kirk- 



5 



sessions, when regularly brought before it, or to direct 
or advise them with regard to any part of their proceed- 
ings, has a radical or original jurisdiction of its own, both 
ecclesiastical and civil. It has the immediate superin- 
tendence of the private conduct, as well as of the profes- 
sional labours, of the clergy of the district, who are not 
amenable to the kirk-sessions. It has the power to ad- 
monish, to censure, and even to deprive them, according 
to the established laws, and upon evidence regularly 
taken. The induction of presentees to benefices belongs 
exclusively to presbyteries. All presentations to bene- 
fices must be directed to the presbyteries, in whom the 
original right is vested, to take trial of the qualifications 
of presentees,* to give them induction if they are found 
qualified ; and, if they want the necessary qualifications, 
to reject them. Besides this security against the intro- 
duction of unqualified men, no individual can be pre- 
sented to a benefice till he has, in the first instance, been 
licensed to preach by a presbytery, after due trial of his 
qualifications. At the same time, the trial prescribed for 
a license does not supersede the second trial of qualifica- 
tions required, when the same individual is presented to 
a benefice. The trial and induction of schoolmasters-)- 
is, in like manner, entrusted to the presbyteries ; and 
there are many other subjects which fall under their 
cognizance, which it is not necessary to specify particu- 
larly. In general, their jurisdiction extends to every thing 
in which the edification or the morals of the people, the 



See Note A, Appendix. 



t See Note B. 



6 



conduct of their parochial instructors, or the discipline of 
the church, is concerned. The sentences and proceedings 
of the presbytery, which, like the kirk-sessions, is always 
a court of record, are subject to the review of the imme- 
diately superior court, the Synod, before which they can 
be brought (as those of the kirk-session before the presby- 
tery) by reference, complaint, or appeal ; and there they 
may be affirmed, reversed, or altered. The presbytery 
has, besides, a limited civil jurisdiction, in questions 
which relate to ecclesiastical benefices, to the designation 
or exchange of parochial glebes, to the building or repair- 
ing of churches or manses,* (parsonage-houses,) and in a 
few other cases. But in all such civil questions, an appeal 
is competent from their decisions, in the form of a sus- 
pension or advocation, not to the Superior Ecclesiastical 
Courts, but to the Court of Session, the Supreme Civil 
Court in Scotland. The forms of proceeding in the pres- 
bytery are prescribed by statute, or are ascertained by use 
and precedent. 

The Synod is the court of review immediately above 
the presbytery, and consists of all the ministers and elders 
who stand on the roll, as constituent members, of a 
certain number of contiguous presbyteries, which are 
placed under its provincial jurisdiction. Its meetings 
are generally held twice, though in some remote districts 
only once, in every year. 

Every ecclesiastical question, which has been under the 
consideration of a presbytery, within the provincial dis- 



* See Note C. 



7 



trict, may be competently brought under the review of the 
synod, in the manner already explained with regard to 
the review of the sentences of kirk-sessions by the pres- 
byteries. 

The synod has, besides, an original jurisdiction, as well 
on subjects of general interest, as with regard to the con- 
duct of its own members, and can both give authoritative 
directions to the presbyteries, and originate propositions 
to the General Assembly, on any subject which seems 
to require its influence or authority. On the other hand, 
every judgment of a synod, as an inferior court, may be 
brought under the review of the General Assembly by 
reference, complaint, or appeal. But in every question, 
not carried to the Courts of Review, the judgment of 
the presbytery or synod (if they have not gone beyond 
their jurisdiction) is final ; and is as completely authori- 
tative as the sentences of the Supreme Court. 

The General Assembly is the Supreme Ecclesiastical 
Court. It consists of delegates from every presbytery, 
university, and royal burgh, in Scotland.* It has the 
countenance of a representative of the King, styled the 
Lord High Commissioner, who is always a nobleman; 
and holding its meeting annually, and (according to the 
present practice) in the month of May, it usually con- 
tinues to sit for twelve days. 

* Each Presbytery sends a fixed number of ministers, and one, two, 
or three elders, ( Laymen,) the number as to both being regulated by the 
number of ministers composing the Presbytery ; each University sends one 
of its own members, either an ordained minister or an ordained elder ; and 
each Royal Burgh sends one elder, qualified in the manner laid down by 
Acts of Assembly.— Ed. 



8 



In its judicial capacity, as a Court of Review, and as 
the Court of Last Resort, the General Assembly has a 
right to determine finally every question brought from 
the inferior courts, by reference, complaint, or appeal. 
And it possesses, besides, such a general superintendence 
of the discipline of the Church, of the management of the 
inferior courts, of the conduct of the clergy, and of the 
morals of the people, that it has authority to go beyond 
the record in any particular case; to redress a wrong 
which appears to have been done, or to apply the church 
discipline, where either it has been neglected by the in- 
ferior courts, or the circumstances of the case appear to 
require the application of it. But to do this regularly, 
the parties interested must be legally cited, if they are not 
before at the bar. In these general views of its judicative 
capacity, the authority vested in the General Assembly is 
of equal importance to the prosperity of the kingdom, to 
the permanent interests of religion, and to the usefulness 
and respectability of the clergy. 

The legislative authority of the General Assembly has 
1 as extensive effects as its judicial functions. It has the 
power of enacting statutes, with regard to every subject of 
ecclesiastical cognizance ; which are equally binding, as 
permanent laws, on the Assembly itself, on the inferior 
courts, and on the individual members of the Church. 
But the power of legislation is not committed to the 
General Assembly without limitation. By an act of 
Assembly in 1697> (which was not passed into a law, till 
it had been transmitted to the several presbyteries, and 
had received their sanction, and which, from its substance 



9 



and design, has obtained the name of the Barrier Act,) 
every proposition for a new law must first be considered 
in the form of an overture, either originating in the As- 
sembly itself, or suggested to the Assembly by the in- 
ferior judicatures. Though it should be approved of by 
the Assembly, it cannot be enacted into a statute, till it 
has been first transmitted to the several presbyteries of 
the church, for their consideration, and has received the 
sanction of at least a majority of the presbyteries. The 
laws which are enacted by the Assembly, after receiving 
this sanction, are the established and permanent statutes 
of the church, by which every thing belonging to the 
ecclesiastical state, or to the church courts, is authorita- 
tively regulated.* 

It is unnecessary to be more minute. This general view 
of the constitution, which is perfectly familiar to those who 
have attended to the subject, is inserted here, not only 
to shew the share which every individual minister must 
of necessity take in the government and discipline of 
the church, as a member of each of the Ecclesiastical 
Courts, but to explain to those who may read this narrative, 
and have less access to be well informed, the practical ex- 

* It should have been mentioned in this detail, that, to secure the purity 
of management in the inferior courts, the presbyteries are required to send up 
their records to be revised by the synod, at every meeting of the synod ; 
and that every synod is bound to send up its records, for revisal by the 
Assembly, every year. By this provision, effectual means are afforded to 
correct the errors of the inferior courts, when they occur ; the authority of 
the synods in the first instance, and of the Assembly in the last resort, 
being always imperative on the courts below. 



10 



tent and efficiency of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Scot' 
land, as applied both to the clergy and to the people.* 

The statute, as well as the common law of the church, 
is sufficiently comprehensive and definite, and the Courts 
of Review are sufficiently accessible, to secure the general 
ends, both of justice and edification ; while the different 
jurisdictions to which every case may be submitted, ought 
to afford as much security, as the present condition of 
human affairs will admit of, both against private intrigue 
and local prejudices. The Church Courts are, no doubt, 
liable to the defects, which are in a certain degree insepa- 
rable from all numerous and public assemblies ; in which 
all the members have the same voice, with very different 
degrees, both of public spirit, and of general information ; 
in which superior talents or address have frequently so 
much more influence than dispassionate judgment ; and 
in which individuals are so apt to mistake sudden im- 
pressions for deliberate conviction. The publicity of 
the courts, which, with the exception of the kirk-sessions, 
are open to spectators from every class of the people, 
united to the responsibility of the individuals at home, 
affords no inconsiderable security against these most 
obvious defects of popular assemblies. Every man's 
voice is recognised by the public ; and every individual 
is conscious, that, on all subjects of general interest, 
the public have a right to estimate and to question his 
conduct. 

If there were no party or political influence to operate 



* See Note D. 



11 



in the Ecclesiastical Courts, though they would often err, 
they would always find the means of correcting their 
own mistakes, or of guarding themselves and their suc- 
cessors against the repetition of them. Neither the con- 
dition of our nature, nor the truth of history, will permit 
us to imagine, that such a state of things has ever been 
completely realized. There is probably no period in the 
Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, or, indeed, of any 
other country, in which party or political considerations 
have not had some degree of influence. On the other 
hand, though their effects have been more visible in some 
countries, and in some periods, than in others, it may 
certainly be affirmed without exaggeration, that as many 
examples can be quoted from the history of the Ecclesias* 
tical Courts of Scotland, of a disinterested and indepen- 
dent zeal for the advancement of religion, and for the 
general interests and safety of the church, and of the 
community 5 as can be produced from any other numerous 
and permanent associations of mankind. But it must 
not be dissembled, that those courts have been at all 
times more or less exposed to an influence of a different 
kind, operating in various forms at different periods, and 
producing effects more or less hostile to the general de- 
sign of a religious establishment. 

At the time of the Reformation, the nobility and 
gentry of Scotland were at the head of the reformers ; 
and, though the reformed clergy had certainly great in- 
fluence, the landholders at first, and ultimately the crown, 
never lost sight of the power which they intended to 
reserve to themselves. 



12 



When the Presbyterian government was established, 
from its very commencement there were individuals, both 
among the clergy and the laity, who laboured to em- 
barrass or paralyze the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical 
Courts, from views of personal aggrandisement, or from 
political intrigue, under the secret or avowed influence 
of the crown. After the convulsions occasioned by so 
great a change on the condition of the country, as the 
Reformation produced, had completely subsided, the 
contention still subsisted, between those who conscien- 
tiously supported the liberties of the church, and what 
they considered as its fundamental laws, and those who 
laboured to subject both the clergy and the church, not 
to the laws of the country, but to an abject subserviency 
to the designs of the Court, or to the will of the So- 
vereign. Before the accession of James VI. to the crown 
of England, his influence in the General Assemblies, sup- 
ported by private intrigue, as well as by the exertions of 
direct authority, was frequently defeated, though it was 
often successful. His versatile politics sometimes yielded 
to the storm which he himself had raised j and, while he 
courted those whom he considered as his opponents in 
the Church with the most flattering attentions, to gain his 
purpose, he did not scruple to make public declarations 
in favour of the Presbyterian government, as the most 
perfect model of the Christian Church. At other times, 
chagrined by opposition, and trusting less to his address 
than to his authority, he attempted to bend the ecclesias- 
tical state to his arbitrary will by the iron rod of power. 
Though the measures which he pursued were as uncertain 



13 



and changeable, as the impressions of a weak mind will 
always be, which are guided neither by sound judgment 
nor by real principle, his object was invariably the same 
— to subjugate every individual in the Church and in the 
State to his own capricious mandates ; and, if it had been 
possible, to allow no influence but his own to operate in 
the affairs of either. 

At the moment of his accession to the crown of 
England, he flattered, indeed, with almost abject servility, 
those in Scotland whom he had before oppressed, and 
imprisoned, and punished, — and whom he persecuted as 
severely afterwards ; that he might have their influence 
to secure the quiet of his own country in his absence, 
uncertain, as he then was, of his reception among his new 
subjects, to whom he was yet a stranger. 

But, as soon as he found himself established in Eng- 
land, he threw off the mask entirely, and allowed the 
inveterate hostility, which he had long secretly cherished 
against the Presbyterian Church, to break out without 
restraint or disguise.* The notable maxim, of which he 
was the author, — " No bishop, no king," — was the result 
of the opposition which had been given to his duplicity 
and tyranny by the Scottish Presbyterians. And nothing 
contributed so much to prevent his arbitrary doctrines, 
civil and religious, from achieving much more than they 

• His treatment of Andrew Melville, the most distinguished individual 
among the Scottish clergymen of his time, whom he had seduced to come 
to London, under the most specious pretences, and whom he afterwards, for 
reasons the most frivolous and contemptible, first imprisoned in the Tower, 
and ultimately compelled to seek a refuge at Sedan for the rest of his life, is 
an everlasting monument of his unprincipled tyranny. 



14 



did, as the undoubting confidence with which he had 
taught himself to contemplate them. They appeared to 
him as so many self-evident or incontrovertible proposi- 
tions, which required no more to establish them, than 
the confidence and authority with which he announced 
them. This reliance on his own sagacity may have gone 
far to save his dominions, during his life, from the effects 
of his most pernicious doctrines. But his folly and 
bigotry laid the foundation of political delusions, which 
ultimately plunged his dominions in anarchy and blood, 
and ended in the ruin of his family. 

It is not necessary, for the purposes of this sketch, 
to enter into the history of James's proceedings in Scot- 
land; to represent the successive and arbitrary innova- 
tions, by which he attempted to assimilate the constitu- 
tion and worship in Scotland to the forms of the English 
Church ; to compel the people to embrace them, and, 
if possible, to annihilate the Presbyterian establishment. 
With all the arbitrary authority which he employed, his 
successor was far from finding his work completed. In 
renewing the attempt to impose the English ceremonies, 
in 1637? Charles I. produced such a convulsion in the 
country, " that all the acts of Assembly, since the acces- 
sion of James to the crown of England, were, upon pretty 
reasonable grounds, afterwards declared null and invalid. 
The acts of Parliament, which affected ecclesiastical affairs, 
were supposed, on that very account, to have no manner 
of authority. And thus, Episcopacy, the High Com- 
mission, the Articles of Perth, the Canons, and the 
Liturgy, were abolished, and declared unlawful ; and the 



15 



whole fabric, which James and Charles, in a long course 
of years, had been rearing with so much care and policy, 
fell at once to the ground."* The Presbyterian dis- 
cipline and government were from that time established ; 
and in this state the Scottish Church remained till after 
the Restoration. 

The establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland, after 
the Restoration, though it was equally adverse to the in- 
clinations of the people, and to their habits and opinions, 
and though it gave the crown much greater facilities than 
it had before possessed, for rendering its influence pre- 
dominant in the Church, did not practically make so 
great a change in the ecclesiastical government or usages, 
as has often been ignorantly affirmed. The public wor- 
ship was still the same. Excepting in the King's chapel, 
and a single parish church in the country, in which it 
was for a year or two in use,*)- the Service-book and 
Liturgy of England never became the usage of Scotland ; 
and the Presbyterian form of worship was universally 
adhered to. The parochial duties of the clergy were 
still understood to be what they had been before, though 
they were certainly discharged with less punctuality or 
strictness. The inferior Ecclesiastical Courts still sub- 
sisted, with scarcely any other change in their proceedings, 
than that the bishop presided, as often as he was present, 
in place of a moderator chosen by the members ; and that 
the clergy received ordination and institution from the 

0 

* Hume's History, Vol. VL p. 371. Quarto edition. 

•f Salton, while Bishop Burnet was minister of that parish. 



16 



bishop, in place of the presbytery. The old Presbyterian 
discipline was still in use ; and in the records of the kirk- 
sessions and presbyteries of that time, many of which are 
still preserved, it is not easy to perceive any very mate- 
rial difference in their proceedings, from the Presbyterian 
practice in the following century. 

Had there been any moderation in the management 
of this new system, or any portion, either of judgment 
or humanity, in those who were employed in it ; and had 
the new clergy in general possessed either talents or 
character ; it is difficult to say what the event might have 
been. But violence and tyranny were the only instru- 
ments resorted to, by those who were at the head of the 
government. The bishops and the clergy, with the ex- 
ception of a few individuals, became the abject tools 
of a persecution, as unprincipled and detestable, as any 
thing which either tyranny or fanaticism has left on 
record : A persecution, notwithstanding all that has been 
said to palliate or defend it, so atrocious, that Arch- 
bishop Leighton (a man who would have done honour 
to any church in the world) declared, that he would not 
have been concerned in it, to have planted Christianity 
itself.* When the Presbyterian ministers were ejected, 
their successors, their inferiors by many degrees, both in 
respectability and learning,f were universally obnoxious 

* Burnet's History of bis own Times, Vol. L p. 213. Folio edition. 

■j- Burnet says of them, " They were generally very mean and despicable 
in all respects. They were the worst preachers T ever heard. They were 
ignorant to a reproach. Many of them were openly vicious. They were a 
disgrace to their orders, and the sacred functions, and were indeed the dregs 

1 



to the people; while the tyranny, and even the ferocity 
with which the influence of government, which then 
became irresistible, was directed against the Presbyterians, 
are scarcely surpassed by any thing to be found in the 
annals of the most barbarous nations. 

The Revolution of 1688 restored the Presbyterian 
discipline and government. If it could not redress the 
injuries of the preceding reigns, to the individuals who 
had suffered so severely, it has at least compensated them 
to the country, by the solid advantages, which, for nearly 
130 years, have been received from the Presbyterian 
Church. 

The Ecclesiastical Courts have ever since subsisted, 
according to the forms of the constitution, which has 
already been explained. While every parochial minister 
has his share in the administration, both of the Supreme 
and of the Inferior Courts, it is obvious, that many of 
the subjects which fall under their jurisdiction have such 
an intimate connexion with the civil government, that 
it may be naturally supposed to be at all times an object 
to those who preside in his Majesty's Council, to bring 
the influence of the Crown to bear on the decisions of the 
Church. 

During the reign of King William, and the first part 
of Queen Anne's reign, there was so much confidence 

and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who rose above contempt 
or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated 
as the others were despised." Burnet, Vol. I. p. 158. Folio edition. See, 
on this subject, Wodrow, Vol. I. p. 158, 159. 

B 



18 



placed in the ministers of state whom they employed, and 
the great body of the Scottish clergy were so thoroughly 
attached to the principles of the Revolution of 1688, that, 
excepting what might affect the peculiar views and usages 
of the Presbyterian Church, there was not much which 
the government could ask, which they were not willing to 
concede ; nor, setting aside occasional differences of opi- 
nion, where there was evidently room for them, such as 
will always occur in numerous assemblies, were there many 
subjects of contention among themselves. There was still 
a pretender to the throne, in a situation to be formidable, 
whom they regarded as equally an enemy to their church 
and to their liberties, and as an enemy to the Protestant 
religion in every form. This circumstance, added to 
the zeal, good sense, and moderation of the government, 
was no uncertain security for the general disposition of 
the Presbyterian clergy, in all ordinary cases, to accede 
to the wishes of the crown. The truth is, that there 
were few occasions at this time, in which the government 
interfered with their deliberations ; though many insi- 
dious attempts were made to give King William a pre- 
judice against their principles, and by artful misrepre- 
sentations, on the other hand, to draw them into an 
opposition to his measures. But their general loyalty 
to government was beyond all suspicion ; and, with few 
exceptions indeed, was uniformly repaid by the confidence 
of the ministers of the crown.* 

When the great question relating to the Union with 

* See a remarkable example in the Life of Principal Carstares, from 
p, 57 to p. 64. 



19 



England occurred in 1708-7, and the act of security was 
conceded to the Scottish Church, and declared to be un- 
alterable, as a fundamental condition of the union ; the 
prudence and moderation of those of the clergy who 
had a leading influence in the Ecclesiastical Judicatories, 
is mentioned by the best informed historians, as a prin- 
cipal instrument of bridling the popular violence against 
the treaty with England, (at that time extremely offen- 
sive to a great body of the people,) and of facilitating 
its progress and termination.* 

During all the period from 1690 to 1712, the chief, 
or most important, deliberations in the General Assem- 
blies, turned on objects of internal regulation. It was, in 
particular, a principal object to provide Presbyterian 
ministers for the remote districts, which were most in want 
of them ; and, till this could be effectually done, to sup- 
ply the vacant parishes in the mean time by individuals 
sent from the southern counties, who, at intervals, offi- 
ciated in succession for a limited period. There were 
but sixty of the old Presbyterian ministers, who had been 
ejected at the Restoration, alive at the Revolution. Many 
of the Episcopal clergy acquiesced in the new establish- 
ment, and, under the provisions of an act of Parliament, 
were received into the church. The Presbyteries in the 
several districts were authorised to receive them, accord- 
ing to the terms prescribed in the act. Young men were 
gradually coming forward to supply the vacant churches ; 
but it required all the attention and vigilance of the 



* Somerville's History of Q. Anne, Ch. x. p, 225, 226. 



20 



Assembly, to make the arrangements requisite for the 
different quarters of the country, so as not only to pro- 
vide for the immediate necessities of the parishes vacant, 
but to look forward steadily to the time when fixed in- 
cumbents could be given to them all. 

There was another object of internal arrangement 
which, at this period, engrossed a great part of the As- 
sembly's attention — the establishment of parochial schools, 
in terms of the acts of Parliament 1693 and 1696; an 
institution, which, in many of its features, is peculiar to 
Scotland, and has most materially added to the resources 
of every order of men in the kingdom.* 

An unbiassed reader, who dispassionately examines the 
proceedings of the General Assemblies from 1690 to 
1712, cannot but perceive the sincerity with which the 
great body of the clergy then united, to promote the reli- 
gious interests of the people, and the general tranquillity 
of the country, as well as the uniform attachment shown 
by them all to the principles which placed William and 
Mary on the throne, and to the great object of pro- 
moting the usefulness and respectability of the Presby- 
terian Church. There were occasional differences of 
opinion among them, such as occur in all numerous assem- 

* The General Assemblies had, long before the Restoration, kept steadily 
in view the education of the people in parochial schools. But, till after the 
Revolution, they had never been able to procure an efficient law on the sub- 
ject, or to establish any regular system. The regulations laid down in 1645 
and 1649 might have had a considerable effect, if they had not been rendered 
abortive by the political convulsions of the times. But it is undoubtedly to 
the Revolution that Scotland is indebted for parish schools ; one of the 
most important advantages which it enjoys. 



m 



blies. But, though we must suppose the influence of 
government to have been at all times considerable, there 
clo not appear, in the General Assemblies of this period, 
any settled combinations, or, indeed, any offensive symp- 
toms, either of party spirit, or of political intrigue. 

Their views of some questions were certainly neither 
liberal nor enlightened. On the subject of religious 
toleration, in particular, all their experience of the per- 
secuting and intolerant spirit of the government before 
the Revolution, had not been sufficient to correct, or 
even to moderate, their own bigotry. It required a con- 
siderable degree of management, on the part of King 
William's administration, to prevent their narrow pre- 
judices, which had rather been irritated than softened 
by what they had suffered before, from operating to the 
disadvantage of the country, and the disgrace of the 
church. The King neither countenanced nor connived 
at any species of religious oppression ; and on this occa- 
sion, he endeavoured, by mild and conciliatory measures, 
to discourage and restrain the intolerance of the clergy. 
In that age, it was not in his power to extirpate it ; and 
the commission of the General Assembly addressed the 
crown against the toleration of dissenters, as late as the 
year 1703. But, at least, the management of King 
William kept the spirit of intolerance in check, and 
prevented it from operating to the prejudice of the coun- 
try ; leaving to the influence of a system of equal and 
temperate law, and to the gradual progress of information, 
the final extirpation of errors, so unworthy of the cause 
of religion, and so hostile to the true interests of every 



22 



government. The clergy had, indeed, a pretence for their 
intolerance, in the intrigues to overturn their establish- 
ment, as well as in the disaffection to the King's autho- 
rity, and to the Revolution itself, which were then 
imputed to the Episcopalian Dissenters.* But, un- 
doubtedly, its chief source is to be referred to the 
narrowness and bigotry of their own system, added to 
their remembrance of the persecutions, from which they 
had been so lately released. 

There were, besides, at this time some scruples, not 
about the substance, but about the terms, of the oaths of 
assurance and abjuration, required under the Revolution 
settlement, which gave some advantage to their adversaries, 
and at first created much embarrassment to the King's 
ministers. But this difficulty was easily surmounted, 
when their scruples were clearly seen to be entirely con- 
scientious, and to have no tincture of disaffection. The 
moderation of the King, and of those whose advice he 
followed, united to the real integrity of those whose 
scruples they respected, prevented the querulousness of 
the clergy on this subject from producing any serious 
consequences, with regard to the condition either of the 
church or of the country. Indeed, the mild and concilia- 
tory treatment, which they received from the King on this 
occasion, added greatly to the affection and confidence 
with which they regarded his person and government.-)- 

But leaving this digression, it is of more importance to 

* Carstares's State Papers, p. 288, Somerville's King William, p. 469. 
f See Life of Carstares, prefixed to his State Papers, p. 57 3 connected with 
p. 61. 



23 



advert to a subject which then occupied much of the atten- 
tion of General Assemblies ; and which, during the course 
of the last century, became the great source of division 
and intrigue, both in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and among 
the people at large. 

It arose out of the rules adopted, at different times, by 
the state or by the church, for the settlement or induction 
of the parochial clergy. 

It is well known, that the idea of patronage, or the 
right of presenting to church benefices, took its rise from 
the canon law, which, even before the Reformation, was 
never completely established in Scotland. In the Second 
Book of Discipline, adopted in 1578, and recorded in 
1581, the General Assembly declared, u that patronages 
and presentations to benefices have flowed from the Pope, 
and corruption of the canon law only, in so far as thereby 
any person was intruded or placed over kirks, having 
cur am animarum and at the same time claimed, that 
in Scotland "none should be intruded upon any congrega- 
tion either by the prince or any inferior person, without 
lawful election, and the assent of the people over whom 
the person is placed. "* This was unquestionably the 
doctrine of the church. 

On the other hand, it is equally clear, that neither 
James VI., nor any of his successors before the Revolution, 
were willing to abolish the right of patronage. The acts 
of Parliament are authoritative and explicit, in enforcing 
this right : but, at the same time, they contain clauses 

* Second Book of Discipline, Ch, 12. 



24 



of restriction, by which it was evidently intended to be 
limited. The act of 1592, c 117? gives the patron a 
right to retain the fruits of the benefice, if his presentee 
shall not be inducted by the Presbytery, unless he shall 
be found unqualified. But it leaves in full force the act 
of 1567, c - 7> which provides, that if a Presbytery* shall 
refuse to admit a qualified presentee, there shall lie an 
appeal from them to " the ministers of the province," 
that is, to the Synod, and, if the Synod shall refuse, that 
it shall then be competent to appeal to the General As- 
sembly, 44 by whom the cause being decided, (the enact- 
ment expressly bears, that ) it shall take end, as they shall 
decern and declare." 

They who have contended for the unlimited right of 
patronage affirm, that, under these acts of Parliament, the 
patron is entitled to retain the fruits of the benefice, in 
every instance, in which the Church Courts refuse the 
induction of a presentee, who is a licentiate of the ehurch, 
on any other grounds than his deficiency in moral or lite- 

* This is not quite correct. The words of the Act run thus : — " That 
in case the patron present ane person qualified to his understanding, and 
failing of ane another within the said six months, and the said superin- 
tendant or commissioner of the kirk, refuses to receive and admit the 
person presented by the patron, as said is ; it sail be leisome to the 
patron to appeal to the superintendant and ministers of that province 
quhair the benefice lies, and desire the person presented to be admitted, 
quhiik gif they refuse, to appeal to the General Assembly of this hail! 
realm, be whom the cause being decided, sail take end, as they decern 
and declare." — And it may be right to mention, that on the abolition of 
the superintendant here referred to, the Presbytery came precisely into 
their place — Ed. 



25 



rary qualifications. On the other hand, they who consider 
the act 1592 as inseparably connected with the provi- 
sions in the act 1567, an ^ tne right of the General 
Assembly to require other qualifications than those which 
are merely literary or moral, (as they have certainly done 
in many instances ;) and to pronounce a final judgment 
or decision, which shall be binding on all the parties, and 
from which there can be no appeal, appointing the settle- 
ment of the presentee, or refusing to appoint it — represent 
the clause in the a'ct 1567, which gives the General As- 
sembly the power of final decision, as limiting and 
explaining the concluding clause in the act 1592. They 
therefore hold, that every question relating to the settle- 
ment of a presentee must take end, or be finally decided, 
as the Assembly decerns and declares ; and that, if the 
Assembly decides against the induction of a presentee, 
whatever the disqualification imputed to him may be, the 
patron has, in that event, no right to retain the fruits of 
the benefice ; but is still entitled, within whatever period 
may remain of the six months allowed him by law for 
presenting, to present another to the benefice. 

When those two acts of Parliament are taken together, 
they would naturally seem, to a person who had no system 
to maintain, to have laid down this general doctrine — 
That, when the inferior Ecclesiastical Courts refuse the 
induction of a presentee on other grounds than his qua- 
lifications, the patron may retain the fruits of the benefice; 
but that, having a right of appeal, which it is implied he 
must exercise, when he has brought the question by appeal 
from the inferior courts to the court of last resort, the 



26 



General Assembly, he has thereby put the controversy 
between the patron and the inferior courts to an issue, 
under which it must be terminated by the decision of the 
Assembly, declared by the act 1567 to be authoritative 
and final ; and that there must also terminate the patron's 
right to retain the fruits of the benefice. 

This general idea receives considerable countenance 
from a fact which can scarcely be questioned — that, nei- 
ther at the time of the passing of the act 1592, nor at any 
period before the Restoration, will it be easy to find 
examples, in which a patron ever attempted to retain the 
fruits of a benefice, after the General Assembly had decided 
against the induction of his presentee ; though there are 
certainly examples in which the majus bonum ecclesice, 
quite independent of the moral and literary qualifications 
of the individual presentees, had determined the Assembly 
to refuse their induction ; or in which the Assembly had 
set aside presentees, as disqualified for the particular 
charges to which they had been presented, on grounds 
quite independent both of their knowledge and their 
morals. 

There are, indeed, two solitary examples, since the 
restoration of patronage in the last century, in which the 
patron did retain the fruits of the benefices, after the 
decision of the Assembly refusing to admit their presen- 
tees. In those cases, other incumbents were admitted, 
who were found to be the legal ministers of the parishes,* 
though they were ultimately deprived of the stipends 



See decision Cochrane, Nov. 19, 1748. Kilkerr. Rep. p. 374. 



27 



belonging to them ; the patrons, whose presentees were 
rejected, having been found entitled to retain, and having 
actually retained them, during their incumbency. 

But, in both these instances, there was a competition 
between contending claimants for the right of patronage ; 
and in both, the decision of the Assembly proceeded, not 
on any circumstances in which either the condition of the 
parishes, or the qualifications of the presentees, were in- 
volved, but solely and exclusively on the legal rights of 
the claimants to the patronage. 

This was at least a different question, from any ques- 
tion which the Assembly can decide, where there is no 
dispute with regard to the right of the patron to present. 
And though the patrons were, in both the instances refer- 
red to, found entitled to retain the fruits of the benefices 
after the decisions given by the Assembly, they were so 
on grounds, which render these cases quite distinct from 
the case of a presentee, whom the Assembly may set 
aside as disqualified, whatever may be the disqualification 
imputed to him. The patron's right to retain the fruits, 
in those two examples, was, indeed, built on the same 
statute of 1592, which applies to every other case in 
which the induction of a presentee can be refused by the 
Assembly. But an attention to the history of them will 
show, how very doubtful the points of law on which the 
decisions turned were believed to be at the time, and 
how much the courts of law were divided with regard to 
them. 

The two parishes in question had become vacant in 
1746 and 1748 ; and in both, the claimants of the patron- 



28 



age, whose presentations the Assembly rejected, were 
ultimately found to be the legal patrons. 

In one of the cases, (the case of the parish of Culross,) 
a minister had been inducted by the presbytery, on the 
nomination of those whom the Assembly had found, and 
who, from the usage, were universally believed to have 
been in the possession of the patronage ; and this was 
done, while a question relating to the right of patronage 
was in dependence before the civil court, at the instance 
of a claimant, whose presentation the church courts had 
rejected, but whose right the civil court ultimately sus- 
tained. This patron afterwards claimed the fruits of the 
benefice, notwithstanding the induction of the minister 
whom the presbytery had preferred ; and he seems to 
have been allowed to retain them without opposition. 
In a printed account of the case, nothing more is stated 
than the question relating to the right of patronage. 
The minister inducted, to whom, it is known, the parish- 
ioners made compensation by a voluntary contribution, 
seems therefore to have acquiesced, without litigating 
the question as to his right to the stipend. There ap- 
pears to have been a sufficient reason to have prevented 
any litigation on this point. Though the Assembly had 
decided against the right of the patron, the presbytery 
had inducted the minister on their own authority ; and 
they had done so, in the face of an appeal to the Superior 
Court. The thing done was not, therefore, the deed of 
the Assembly, but a deed of the presbytery alone ; and a 
deed, besides, which was carried into execution contrary 
to the established law of the church with regard to ap- 



29 



peals, according to which the appeal ought to have sisted 
the proceedings. This circumstance gave the minister a 
strong reason for declining to litigate the question, as to 
the patron's right to retain the fruits of the benefice, 
which, it is evident, might have ultimately led to a deci- 
sion, finding his own induction to have been illegally ex- 
ecuted. This was, indeed, the construction put on it, 
when it was quoted in the case of Lanark, — a case in 
which the Court of Session unanimously gave an oppo- 
site decision, and found that the patron had no right to 
retain the fruits. 

In the case of Lanark, though the question as to the 
right of patronage was decided, by the Court of Session, 
in favour of the Crown, whose presentation had been 
rejected by the presbytery, the question relating to the 
fruits of the benefice was afterwards the subject of a long 
litigation. The minister, who had been admitted by the 
church courts under the authority of the Assembly, con- 
tended, That when patrons in competition have neglect- 
ed to ascertain their right of patronage till an actual 
vacancy has occurred, they are not entitled to protract a 
vacancy, by a litigation to establish it, which ought to 
have been instituted before, and must abide by the con- 
sequences of their own neglect — That the presbyteries 
were, by law and immemorial usage, entitled to decide 
between two presentations offered to them, according to 
their best information, from their own records, and from 
other sources, when the right of patronage had not before 
been established by any decree of the civil court — That 
this had been understood to be the law of Scotland, not 



30 



only under the Presbyterian Church, but at every period 
during the establishment of Episcopacy — That the bishops 
had exercised the same right, which was afterwards held 
to be vested in the presbyteries — That they sustained the 
presentations of the patrons, who, according to the best 
information which they could obtain, appeared to be in 
possession, and gave induction to their presentees accord- 
ingly — That their induction was always effectual for the 
vice, (or for that vacancy,) in whatever way the perma- 
nent right of patronage might afterwards be determined 
in the civil courts — And that, in that case, the presby- 
tery of Lanark had done no more. 

Though the Lords of Session had before decided the 
competition, as to right of patronage, against the person 
whose presentation the presbytery of Lanark had sustain- 
ed, they were unanimous, in finding the minister, who 
had been admitted to the pastoral charge, under the judg- 
ment of the presbytery, to be the legal minister of the 
parish, and to be entitled to the stipend, and in rejecting 
the claim of the patron to retain the fruits of the benefice. 

This question was, however, afterwards carried by ap- 
peal to the House of Lords ; and, by the decision of that 
Supreme Court, governed, not by the law of Scotland, as 
it had always before been understood, but by ideas taken 
from the practice in England, under a very different 
constitution, it was ultimately reversed.* The Crown, 
whose right of patronage had been sustained, retained, in 
consequence, the stipend of the parish during all the mi- 



See Note E. 



31 



nister's incumbency ; though, with regard to the pastoral 
cure, the original deed of the Ecclesiastical Courts was 
held to be final and irreversible. The minister admitted 
was declared to be the legal pastor of the parish. And, 
though there was afterwards an unsuccessful attempt to 
deprive him of the manse and glebe, and even of the pos- 
session of the church, he was found, by the Court of Ses- 
sion, to have an unquestionable right to remain in pos- 
session of these to the end of his incumbency. 

Both these examples (of Culross and Lanark) are ob- 
viously anomalous cases, such as never did before arise, 
or have ever since occurred ; and standing alone, as they 
do, are distinguished by circumstances so peculiar to 
themselves, that they should scarcely be acknowledged 
as precedents, for cases in which the circumstances are 
not the same. They do not surely authorise similar pro- 
ceedings, where there has been no competition of presen- 
tations, no mistake with regard to the right of patronage, 
and no admission of a minister who has not the presenta- 
tion of the real patron. Nor ought they to warrant the 
conclusion, that a question relating to the induction of a 
presentee shall not take end, (in terms of the act 1567,) 
as " the General Assembly decerns and declares," in cases 
in which there is no dispute with regard to the patron's 
right. 

It should be considered, besides, that no greater ab- 
surdity can be imagined, than that it could ever have 
been in the contemplation of law, that a benefice should, 
in any circumstances, be separated from the pastoral cure 
to which it is attached. The examples in which it has 



32 



been so, have risen out of peculiar circumstances, which 
could not be in the view of the legislature, and are, there- 
fore, to be regarded as exceptions from a general rule, 
which, because they are exceptions, serve to confirm, and 
cannot subvert it; and which must, at least, be pro- 
nounced to be no precedents, where the circumstances 
are not the same. In the History-of the Church, many 
examples will be found, in which the General Assemblies 
have set aside presentees, to whom neither literary nor 
moral disqualifications could be objected, and in which 
the provision in the act of 1567 nas uniformly taken ef- 
fect, without any attempt, on the part of the patrons, to 
retain the fruits of the benefices. This circumstance 
ought to go some way to sustain the position, that, in 
ordinary cases, the final judgment of the General Assem- 
bly does not leave the patron a right to retain the fruits 
of the benefice ; and that the act 1567 i s Still in force, 
though the cases must now very seldom occur, to which 
it was, by any interpretation, intended to apply. 

But leaving this subject, it is of more importance to 
the following statements to remark, that, whatever the 
opinions of later times have been, the law of patronage 
was, in all the periods from the Reformation to the Re- 
volution, considered by the Presbyterian Church as an 
intolerable grievance ; and that, at the Revolution, their 
release from it was one of the leading objects of the Pres- 
byterian Clergy. In this point they appear to have been 
all agreed ; and their aversion to patronage was so uni- 
versal, and so deeply rooted, that, though King William 
was privately unwilling to make the concession, his best 



33 



mends convinced him of the necessity of going at least to 
a certain length to gratify them, on a subject which they 
regarded with so much solicitude. 

On the other hand, whatever may have been said to 
the contrary, patronage was certainly in use down to the 
latest period before the Restoration, during which there 
is any record of the proceedings of General Assemblies. 
In the imprinted Acts of the Assembly of 1645, there is a 
proposal for applying to Parliament, to allow presbyteries 
to plant the churches, " which are of the patronage of 
forfeited and excommunicated persons? In 1647, in 
an Act of Assembly, " for pressing and furthering the 
plantation of kirks,'" there is an instruction given to every 
presbytery, to make a report to the Assembly, of " what 
hirks are under patrons, what kirks have no patrons, 
and who are the several patrons." In another act of 
the same year, there is a renewal of an act of Assembly 
at Glasgow; and another at St. Andrews, " concerning 
tists for presentations from the King, and the trial of ex- 
pectants.''' These acts demonstrate, that patronage was, 
to a certain extent, still in use, even at that period of the 
church which has been commonly supposed to have been 
most adverse to it. But they show, at the same time, 
the solicitude of the clergy, to get into their own hands 
the command of as many patronages as possible. And 
the truth is, that, at this time, neither the crown, nor 
the subject-patrons, were frequently in a situation to re- 
sist them. The presbyteries were, in a great measure, 
allowed to nominate the candidates for vacant parishes, 
not only when they sent lists to the crown, but in other 

c 



34 



cases. The candidates named by them were proposed to 
the kirk-sessions, who, in each case, were allowed, from 
several persons put in nomination, to elect one, who was 
then proposed to the congregation. By the Directory for 
the Election of Ministers of 1649, if a majority of the 
congregation dissented, they were to give their reasons, 
of which the presbytery were to judge. If the presby- 
tery should find their dissent founded on causeless pre- 
judices, they were, notwithstanding, to proceed to the 
settlement of the person elected. And there is a clause 
subjoined, which in those times would apply to many 
cases, " That where the congregation was disaffect- 
ed or malignant, in that case, the presbytery were {by 
their own authority) to provide the parish with a mi* 
nister. ,, Though this mode seemed to give weight to 
the clergy only in the first nomination, or on extraordi- 
nary emergencies, and more influence to the people in 
ordinary cases, it is evident, that the clergy had still the 
chief influence in the ultimate decision, as well as in the 
selection of the candidates. For when the people were di- 
vided, which very generally happened, it lay with the 
Church Courts at last to determine between the parties ; 
and it can scarcely be supposed, with all the purity which 
can be ascribed to the intentions of the clergy, that the 
candidate who had most favour among them was often 
rejected. 

These circumstances are adverted to, because they go 
a great way to explain the provisions of the act 1690, 
c. 23, which was passed after the re- establishment of the 
Presbyterian constitution at the Revolution. It was 



35 



not thought expedient to give the clergy the influence, 
which, in whatever form it was exercised, they really- 
possessed before the usurpation of Cromwell, and still 
less to place any power in the great body of the people, 
which could interfere with the right of election. King 
William's advisers followed a middle course between 
these extremes. Though their arrangement was cer- 
tainly suggested by the former practice, it was in a great 
measure free from its chief disadvantages. In place of 
the presbytery, it gave the original and exclusive power 
of nomination to the heritors and elders of the parish. 
The person nominated was then, indeed, to be proposed 
to the congregation, who might approve or disapprove, 
for reasons shown and substantiated ; but who had 
no power of rejection, without substantiating reasons, 
which the Presbytery, and (on appeal) the Superior 
Courts, were to pronounce sufficient ; " at whose judg- 
ment, and by whose determination, the calling and 
entry of a particular minister is to be ordered and 
concluded? But no majority of the congregation 
was mentioned, as in the Directory of 1 649, who might, 
for reasons to be shown, disapprove, though they had 
not a right of election- Each individual parishioner 
might give his reasons of dissent for the judgment of 
the presbytery ; a regulation, which, though apparently 
as popular, was, in its practical effect, a very different 
thing from the voice of a recognised majority* 

* The words of this part of the statute are : — " And to the effect, the 
calling and entering of ministers, in all time coming, may be orderly and 



36 



The act 1690 was not the production of the clergy, 
who, as already stated, did not at the time exceed the 
number of sixty in the whole country. Though some of 
the ablest among them were no doubt consulted, the act 
was the work of such of the King's ministers as were 
best acquainted with the state of the country : and its 
immediate effects on the condition of the people, did 
equal credit to their intentions and to their discern- 
ment. 

Though it is asserted in the preamble to the act 
1712, (10th Anne, c. 12,) restoring patronages, that the 
mode prescribed hy the act 1690 " had proved incon- 
venient" and had " occasioned great heats and 
divisions" it is unquestionably true, that, whatever pri- 
vate differences there might be in particular cases, there 
is no period in the History of the Church, in which the 
settlement of ministers was conducted with as little bustle 

regularly performed, their Majesties, with the consent of the Estates of 
Parliament, do statute and declare, that, in case of the vacancy of any 
particular church, and for supplying the same with a minister, the heri- 
tors of the said parish (being Protestants) and the elders, are to name 
and propose the same to the whole congregation, to be either approven 
or disapproven by them ; and if they disapprove, that the disapprovers 
give in their reasons, to the effect the affair may be cognosced upon by 
the presbytery of the bounds, at whose judgment, and by whose deter- 
mination, the calling and entry of a particular minister is to be ordered 
and concluded." The particular cases of royal burghs, and parishes 
partly burgh and partly landward, (or country,) are separately regulated. 
And it is to be observed, that the right of review, by the inferior Church 
Courts, has always been understood to be implied in the jurisdiction given 
to the presbyteries.-— Ed. 



37 



or heat, or with as much regularity, as during the inter- 
val from 1690 to 1712. 

It cannot be affirmed, that there was no discontent or 
opposition excited, by the settlement of individuals. But 
nothing of this kind is on record, which created any 
public disorder in the country, or any permanent divi- 
sions among the people. A few cases there certainly were, 
in which the adherents of the Episcopal party resisted 
the introduction of Presbyterian ministers. But a single 
example can scarcely be given, from any quarter of the 
kingdom, of differences which arose among heritors and 
elders, in the nomination of ministers ; or of differences 
between them and the congregations, by which any seri- 
ous or lasting inconvenience was created. They frequently 
brought their cases to the General Assembly ; though the 
chief debates in the Assemblies of this period related to 
projected translations, and especially to competitions be- 
tween different parishes for the same ministers. From 
the keenness of these competitions, the same cases some- 
times appear in different shapes on the records of two or 
three successive Assemblies. But, what it is of most 
importance to observe, the decisions of the Assembly 
appear to have been always effectual at last ; and it will 
not be found, that the opposition made to the settlement 
of any individual minister, ever deprived him in the end, 
either of the usual attendance, or of the general confi- 
dence of the parishioners. There is not, during the 
whole period, a single example on record, of the great 
body of the people deserting a parish church, on account 



38 



of the settlement of a minister under the authority of the 
Assembly. 

The General Assemblies of that time were much more 
occupied in finding clergymen for the remote districts, 
and in adjusting the competitions of different parishes for 
the same clergymen, when the vacancies were so numerous, 
and the number of candidates so disproportioned to them, 
than in deciding on any differences which arose among 
the heritors and elders of any parish, under the provisions 
of the act 1690. If the people sometimes remonstrated 
against their decisions, (and the examples in which they 
did so scarcely occur, except when there was a competi- 
tion of parishes for the same minister, or when a minister 
who had been nominated refused to accept, and the par- 
ishioners solicited the interposition of the Assembly against 
his wishes,) it will be found, that there is not a single in- 
stance in which the parishioners did not ultimately sub- 
mit to the judgment of the Assembly. 

It ought to be remarked, besides, that it does not appear 
that, at that time, the members of the church discovered 
any considerable symptoms, either of party or political 
divisions. Their sufferings as Presbyterians, under the 
preceding reigns, were too recent, to allow any thing of 
this kind to come in competition with their solicitude to 
extend the benefits of their establishment to every district 
of the country; and by an assiduous and faithful dis- 
charge of their pastoral functions, to provide effectually 
for the quiet and comfort of a people, so lately driven to 
every extremity,- by the most unfeeling and barbarous 



39 



persecutions, — -persecutions which no length of time can 
consign to oblivion ; which neither any change of man- 
ners, nor any severity of sarcasm, should tempt their 
descendants to palliate ; and which it required all the 
security of a regular and enlightened government, as well 
as all the consolations of religion, in any degree to com- 
pensate. 

There is another important fact, which ought to be 
mentioned here, though it will be afterwards again advert- 
ed to. There does not appear, during the whole interval 
from 1690 to 1712, the least vestige of a doctrine, so 
much contended for at a later period, which asserted a 
divine right in the people, individually or collectively, 
to elect the parish ministers. In all the questions before 
the General Assemblies, with regard to the settlement of 
parishes, there is no claim to this effect either asserted 
or pretended ; nor does there appear to have been, in 
any single instance, an opposition to the execution of the 
act 1 690, on any principle of this kind. Whatever have 
been the disadvantages of the act 1712, they did not 
originate in its contradiction to any supposed claim of 
divine right ; which, at the time of this enactment, though 
there might be private opinions of individuals in its fa- 
vour, was neither conceded nor avowedly asserted. 

It is well known, how keenly this doctrine was brought 
forward at a later period, and how much more mischief 
it produced, than any principle involved in it would have 
naturally led dispassionate men to anticipate. 

In 1712, patronages were restored by an act of Parlia- 
ment, brought forward by the Tory ministry of the latter 



40 



part of Queen Anne's reign ; an act, which was certain!}* 
intended by them to operate against the Whigs of Scot- 
land, whom they found steady and active opponents of 
their measures ; but which none of the Whig admini- 
strations which have since been in power, could ever be 
persuaded to repeal. It had long been a favourite object 
with the Episcopal and Tory party in Scotland ; and the 
clergy had taken some alarm on the subject as early as 
the year 1703, which, in that year, the commission of 
the General Assembly stated, in an address to the Parlia- 
ment of Scotland. 

The act 1712 came upon them suddenly at last ; but 
its immediate consequences were neither as visible, nor 
as extensive, as either its friends or its opponents have 
since affirmed, or had then predicted. The settlement 
of ministers by presentations was, at first, but in few 
instances resorted to ; and in the examples which occur- 
red, the presentees were personally so acceptable to the 
parishioners, as to disarm any opposition which might 
have been made to them. In many cases, in which pre- 
sentations were lodged with the presbyteries, the Church 
Courts effectuated the settlements without much regard 
to them ; the sentences of the Synods and Assemblies pro- 
ceeding more on the calls than on the presentations, 
even when both were before them. In a few instances, 
(such as the case of Mr Christie, presented to the second 
charge of Dunfermline in 17170 the presentees were set 
aside by the Church Courts, on account of the opposition 
made to them ; and other candidates were inducted. But 
in all cases, the proceedings of the Church Courts were 



41 



founded, more on the calls than on the presentations ; 
and, when the parties were satisfied with the result, little 
attention was given to the forms which led to it. The 
truth is, that, during this period, vacant parishes appear 
to have heen, very generally, filled up by the presbyteries, 
either with the tacit consent of the patrons, even when 
they lodged their presentations ; or, jure devoluto, when 
they did not present at all. 

Supposing this state of things to have continued, (and 
the clergy had not then sufficient foresight to be aware 
that it would not continue,) it became a subject of very 
serious deliberation, to settle a definite rule by which the 
proceedings of the Church Courts should, in all such 
cases, be governed. Overtures were, with this view, 
transmitted by the Assembly to presbyteries, from 1*]12 
to 1723. Many alterations were inserted in them, from 
year to year. The substance of the act 1 690 was, in 
general, adhered to ; though, in the succession of over- 
tures transmitted, there was an evident inclination dis- 
covered, to give more weight to the heads of families 
than that act allowed them, without directly introducing 
them as electors. The presbyteries, however, were far 
from being agreed on the subject ; and at last those over- 
tures were laid aside, without having settled any ques- 
tion. 

It is material to state these facts, because they prove, 
on the one hand, that, whatever differences existed on 
the subject, what was afterwards called the divine fight 
of the people was not even then brought forward ; and, 
on the other, that the act 1732, which will be afterwards 



42 



adverted to, was no wide or extravagant departure from 
the general language of the Assemblies, from 1712, or 
indeed from 1690, till that time.* 

It has been already observed, that, for many years 
after the date of the act restoring patronages, presenta- 
tions were by no means introduced into general practice. 
There were, notwithstanding, several abuses of the right 
of patronage, which very early created serious disorders. 
They are enumerated in a memorial addressed to Parlia- 
ment, in 1715, by the commission of the General As- 
sembly, in which the most flagrant and mischievous, and 
not the least common abuse which is mentioned, is the 
practice, by which patrons presented individuals, who 

* There is a remarkable fact which belongs to this period, and deserves 
to be mentioned. There had. been a long dispute about the settlement 
of the second minister of Dunfermline, already alluded to. It terminated 
at last in an application to the commission of the General Assembly of 
1 7 18, by the magistrates and council of the burgh, supported by the heritors 
and kirk-session of the parish, with the unanimous concurrence of the 
presbytery ; asking the commission, (after laying aside the presentee, Mr 
Christie,) to appoint, in the technical terms of the Church Courts, a call to 
be moderated in favuur of four candidates, whom they named, one of whom 
should be elected by the majority of the magistrates and town- council,' the 
heritors, and elders of the parish. No mention whatever is made of the 
heads of families, or of any other individuals in the parish, or even of their 
right to object to the candidate to be ehcted. And yet it is remarkable, 
that this application was made, when Mr Ralph Erskine, who was after- 
wards one of the heads of the secession, was the first minister of Dunferm- 
line ; and as the presbytery, and, as far as appears, the kirk-session, were 
unanimous, it must have had his special approbation and concurrence — a 
fact, which is by no means unimportant, when it is connected with the pro- 
ceedings which took place after the year 1732. 



43 



held tlie best, to the smallest benefices ; certain that they 
would not accept of their presentations. By raising 
processes before the Ecclesiastical Courts, for the trans- 
lation of presentees who had not accepted of their pre- 
sentations, which they knew beforehand must be unsuc- 
cessful, the patrons protracted the vacancies ; and under 
the law, as it then stood, were enabled, in the mean time, 
to retain the vacant stipends. And, though they only 
attempted to retain them, while they had questions re- 
lating to calls and translations in dependence before the 
inferior courts, and never after the Assembly had pro- 
nounced a final decision, it was sometimes in their 
power, by an artful management of the litigations, to 
keep possession of the vacant stipends for several years. 
An act of the 5th of George I. c. 29 — 58, was therefore 
passed, to correct these, and some other manifest abuses ; 
by which it is enacted, that " if any patron shall present 
a person to any vacancy, who is then, or shall be, pastor or 
minister of any other church or parish, or any person, 
who shall not accept or declare his willingness to accept 
of the presentation and charge to which he is presented, 
within the said time, such presentation shall not be 
accounted any interruption of the course of time allowed 
to the patron for presenting ; but the jus devoluturn shall 
take place as if no such presentation had been offered. 1 '* 

* This act of Parliament was incorrectly stated in the original publication. 
The words are here given ; and as the opinion attributed to Lords Kaimes 
and Swinton was stronger than the editor can find to have been expressed 
by either of them, he has altered the language of the passage. The statute 
is certainly very ill expressed ; and, in particular, it is difficult to see to what 



44 



From the terms in which this enactment is expressed, 
there might have been room for holding, that a beneficed 
clergyman is, in words at least, excluded from the right 
of accepting a presentation at all. And the manner in 
which Lord Kaimes and Lord Swinton have mentioned 
the statute, might leave the impression, that they perhaps 
put this construction on it. But it has been otherwise 
interpreted ; and there has been a uniform practice of 
sustaining presentations to persons so situated. The 
chief design of the act was, to prevent a patron from 
employing his right of patronage to keep a church vacant, 
in order to retain the vacant stipend, and to put an end 
to all such sinister expedients and collusion as had before 
been employed with that view. In this respect, the 
object of the act has been completely attained. 

Though there had been several examples of the abuses 
which this act was intended to correct, it is undoubtedly 
true, at the same time, that the number was comparatively 
small, of settlements effectuated by means of presentations, 
from 1712 to 1732. 

On the other hand, it is clear that the Assembly pro- 
nounced many sentences, during this period, without 
much regard to the rights of patronage. 

In 1723, when Mr Hepburn was translated from Torry- 

the words " within the said time" refer, though they evidently are meant 
to point out the ordinary time allowed for presenting. It is also very awk- 
ward in the form of expression as to the case of beneficed clergymen. But 
the editor has no doubt, that, in the true meaning, it referred to their fail- 
ure or delay to accept, and that the practice lias justly interpreted the 
enactment. — Ed. 



45 



burn to Edinburgh, the Assembly ordained that that 
vacancy should not be filled up, without the leave and 
direction of the Synod of Fife. The patron, at that 
time the proprietor of the estate of Culross, was not so 
much as mentioned, or alluded to. In 1724, when a 
presentation was given by the Crown to the Church of 
Lochmaben, a call was moderated, not limited to the 
presentee; and a different candidate, who was held to 
have had the majority of the town-council, heritors, and 
elders, was actually inducted by the presbytery. This 
settlement was indeed rescinded by the Assembly ; but 
the result was, that both calls were set aside by that 
Supreme Court-— that the Lord Advocate of the time was 
asked to apply to his Majesty, not to insist on his pre- 
sentation — that he promised to use his influence, and 
agreed that both calls should be set aside ; — and that a new 
moderation was appointed, not limited to the presentee. 
In 1726, a presentation to Twynholm was set aside, 
and a different candidate from the presentee was inducted. 
The same thing happened in 1727? in the case of Hod- 
dam ; and there were many similar examples at the same 
period. In 1726, a sentence of the commission, which sus- 
tained a call to Principal Chalmers to be minister of Old 
Machar, and appointed his settlement, is disapproved of by 
the Assembly ; chiefly on the ground, that the rule laid 
down in the Directory for Calls, in 1649, had not been 
followed. No regard whatever seems to have been paid 
to his presentation, (though he had a presentation,) either 
by the commission, or the Assembly. After much liti- 
gation, and upon a new call, his settlement was ulti- 



46 



mately made effectual by the Assembly, in 1730. In 
1730, Mr Macdiarmid of Ayr's translation to Renfrew 
was refused by the Assembly ; though the patron per- 
sisted in prosecuting his translation, till a final sentence 
was obtained. And when that sentence was at last pro- 
nounced, though the patron had retained the fruits of the 
benefice during the dependence of the process, there was 
no attempt whatever to retain them, after the Assembly 
decided against the translation. 

It is unnecessary to give more examples to show, that, 
during the period referred to, the right of patronage was 
but partially exercised — That presentations were, as far as 
possible, discountenanced and disregarded by the Church 
— That the sentences of the Ecclesiastical Courts were 
in general ultimately effectual — And that there is not 
one example during the whole period, in which a patron 
attempted to retain the fruits of a vacant benefice, after 
a final decision was given against his presentee by the 
General Assembly, though they were uniformly retained 
till that decision was pronounced. 

The examples quoted may perhaps serve, besides, to 
establish some other points, which have not been very 
generally attended to. They go at least a great way to 
prove, that, at this time, the General Assemblies contend- 
ed for no rule, for the settlement of parochial churches, 
which went in substance beyond the act 1690 — That 
even the Directory of 1649, though sometimes appealed 
to, did not giv r e the election of ministers to heads of 
families, or to those who have since been called the 
Christian people — That all the overtures on the subject, 



47 



from 1712 to 1723, are substantially founded on the act 
1690 ; though, in some of them, a more popular language 
is employed than in others, without departing from the 
general principle — And, finally, that when the Assemblies 
professed to prepare rules for the settlement of parochial 
churches, which were only to apply to cases in which the 
jus deoolutum took place, they were, in truth, contem- 
plating what were then the great majority of vacancies 
in the church ; a fact which gives the true character to all 
their proceedings on this subject. 

The General Assemblies appear to have conducted the 
business of the church, as fairly and dispassionately as 
can be expected in such a body of men, for the general 
interests of the community; down to the year 1725. 
Before that time, they discovered no very prominent 
features, either of political or party contentions ; but 
seem to have been heartily united, in providing for the 
usefulness and respectability of the church, and for the 
peace and security of the country. 

But from 17^5 to 17^2, their proceedings undoubtedly 
begin to assume a different character. 

The Directory of 1649 begins to be referred to, more 
authoritatively, than had been the practice before. The 
proceedings of the commission of 1725 are set aside by 
the Assembly of 1726, (as has already been stated,) 
chiefly because they had proceeded on a call, not exactly 
after the model of that Directory ; though it is certain 
that, in that very case, they were much more vulnerable 
on other points, in which the commission had usurped 



48 



the powers both of the presbytery and synod, — in mani- 
fest violation of most essential articles in the constitution 
of the church. From this time, it is quite clear, that 
there is a party contending for popular election, in the 
settlement of ministers ; that is, for an election by the 
heads of families, as well as by heritors and elders, in 
opposition, both to the law of patronage, and to the prac- 
tice established under the act 1690. 

On the other hand, the party in opposition to them, 
far from insisting for the settlement of parishes by pre- 
sentations alone, without the aid of a call, contend for 
nothing more than that the call shall be exclusively by 
heritors and elders, and approved or disapproved, for 
reasons shown, by the congregation ; and that this rule 
shall be uniformly followed, in the exercise of the jus 
devolutum, — under which right, far the greatest number 
of vacant parishes were at that time supplied. 

In 1728, the commission propose to the Assembly a 
new overture for the settlement of ministers, under the 
jus devolutum ; in which, though somewhat more influ- 
ence is apparently given to the congregation, in the no- 
mination of candidates, the same rule is still adhered to, 
for the election of the ministers by the heritors and elders. 
But the party becomes every day more visible, who 
pointed at a more popular rule. Though the overture 
of the commission does not appear to have gone far be- 
yond that which was laid aside in 1723, it was never 
moved in the Assembly ; and, after some attempts to 
improve it, it was probably neglected, because it could 



1 



49 



no longer meet the ideas of those, who were by this time 
beginning to assume the character of the popular party 
in the church. 

There were afterwards new overtures in preparation ; 
but none of them were transmitted to presbyteries. And, 
as presentations became more frequent, the contention 
between the parties, by this time formed in the church, 
became both keener and more visible. The induction of 
presentees became more difficult ; and the exertion of 
church authority was more coercive, and more frequently 
resorted to. 

The decisions of the Church Courts were by no means 
uniform. But, as the opposition to presentees became 
more frequent, and more unmanageable, the courts by 
degrees began to act with more firmness ; and, from the 
obstructions which were given to the execution of their 
sentences, all their resolution became necessary, to carry 
them into effect. 

None of the least of their difficulties arose from the 
clergy themselves. When the great body of the parish- 
ioners resisted the induction of a presentee ; when a 
great proportion of the elders, or of the resident heritors, 
in the parish to which he was presented, refused to sub- 
scribe his call ; and when, supported by the heads of 
families, they came forward in the Church Courts to 
oppose his settlement ; many of the clergy began to 
entertain, what they considered as conscientious scruples, 
against the induction of a minister, who, according to 
their conception, could have no pastoral relation to a 
people who refused to submit to his ministry : And on 

D 



50 



this principle many of the presbyteries refused to execute 
the sentences of the Superior Courts, which appointed 
such inductions. 

This circumstance presented a very serious obstruction 
to the exercise of church authority on the subject ; which, 
if it had been carried to extremity at first, might have 
produced a schism in the church, still more extensive 
than that which was soon after exhibited. The indivi- 
duals, who hesitated to give obedience to their ecclesiasti- 
cal superiors on this point, and who made it a subject of 
conscientious scruples, were neither to be persuaded nor 
compelled ; and, as they had the support of the great 
body of the people, it was at least a matter of great de- 
licacy to put to hazard the authority and the peace of the 
church, by peremptory sentences, which might be disre- 
garded or obeyed. 

The policy of those who were unwilling to bring this 
question to issue, at a time when the minds of a great 
proportion, both of the clergy and of the people, were 
heated and irritated on the subject, and when the oppo- 
sition to individual presentees became every day more 
inveterate, suggested an expedient, by which the most 
authoritative sentences of the Assembly were executed, 
in the midst of the keenest opposition of the people, and 
without interfering with the scruples of the clergy. 

Instead of appointing the presbyteries themselves, as 
the constitution required, to execute the sentences of the 
Supreme Court, the Assembly, or commission, appointed 
individual ministers of their own number — or members 
of synods or presbyteries in the vicinity of the parishes 



51 



—to execute their sentences, by giving collation to the 
presentees, according to the same forms which, in ordi- 
nary cases, would have been competent to the presby- 
teries ; leaving it to such members of the presbyteries as 
were willing to join with them, to take part in the trans- 
action. 

This expedient was adopted in 1729, in the settlement 
of New Machar ; and continued to be resorted to, in 
cases of similar difficulty, for twenty years after that time. 
It was certainly a great deviation from constitutional 
law. But the times were difficult. The scruples of many 
of the most popular clergy were as sincere as they were 
obstinate. The agitation of the people on the subject 
was every day becoming more visible and violent. The 
opposition to many of the presentees, who were inducted 
by the committees appointed by the Supreme Court, was 
as inveterate after their induction as before; and their 
churches were in danger of being almost entirely desert- 
ed. The leaders in the Assemblies were not willing to 
add to the struggle occasioned by the opposition of the 
people, a controversy with the scruples of the clergy ; and 
this was the origin of what were then denominated among 
the populace " the riding committees." 

There will be occasion to advert to this subject again. 
The expedient adopted was, at the best, but a palliative ; 
which, they who devised it allowed themselves to believe, 
would be effectual to preserve the authority of the church, 
without endangering her tranquillity. 

In 1732, another expedient was adopted, which has 
had more permanent effects on the situation both of the 
church and of the country. 



52 



No overtures relating to the settlement of ministers 
had been lately transmitted to the presbyteries. Though 
several overtures on the subject had been in prepara- 
tion, they had not been followed out. And they who 
were impatient to have a definite rule laid down, which, 
without departing from established usages, should be ef- 
fectual to crush the doctrines then keenly agitated, relat- 
ing to the divine right of the people at large in the elec- 
tion of ministers, persuaded the Assembly to pass an act, 
by their own authority, and without transmission to the 
presbyteries, containing a rule for the settlement of mi- 
nisters, in all cases in which the nomination should fall to 
the presbyteries, either jure devoluto, or by the consent 
of patrons who did not exercise their right of patronage. 
It has already been stated, that, according to the prac- 
tice then subsisting, this description would have applied 
to a great proportion of the vacancies in Scotland. 

The act contains in substance the same rule which had 
been established by the act of Parliament 1690 ; with 
some additional regulations, which might become neces- 
sary, in certain specified cases. 

No proceeding of the General Assembly has ever been 
followed by consequences which have more generally or 
permanently affected the state of the country. It was 
most strenuously opposed at the time by those who were 
then considered as the popular party in the church — By 
many of them, because the act had not been previously 
transmitted to presbyteries, in the form of an overture, 
in terms of the Barrier Act ; and by a considerable num- 
ber, besides, of those who asserted the divine right of the 
people in the election of ministers, and who would have 



53 



been as hostile to the act of Parliament of 1690, as they 
were to this enactment of the Assembly. The first class 
had constitutional grounds to plead for their opposition ; 
while the latter asserted the rights of conscience, and the 
rights of the people which they professed to derive from 
the authority of Christ. 

The state of the controversy was such, that it might 
have been naturally expected, after the division in the 
Assembly, to produce a very considerable degree of irri- 
tation in the country ; and of this circumstance the keen- 
est of the popular demagogues among the clergy did not 
fail immediately to avail themselves. 

The Assembly was no sooner dissolved, than Mr Eben- 
ezer Erskine, minister of Stirling, began to sound the 
alarm against their enactment as a great encroachment 
on the rights of the people, on the constitution of the 
church, and (what was much more serious) on the laws 
and authority of Christ. On the 4th of June, 1732, a 
few days after the date of the act, he preached a sermon 
in the church of Stirling, full of inflammatory declama- 
tions ; in which, after laying down, in broad and unqua- 
lified terms, the divine right of the people at large to 
elect their own pastors, he roundly asserted, " That 
those professed Presbyterians, who thrust men upon con- 
gregations, without, and contrary to the free choice their 
great King had allowed them, were guilty of an attempt 
to jostle Christ out of his government, and to take it on 
their own shoulders." In the preface to this sermon, 
which he immediately published, he expressly applied 
these assertions to the act of Assembly in question. In 



54 



October following he preached another sermon before the 
Synod of Perth and Stirling, in which he affirmed the 
same doctrine, in terms equally unqualified, and of equal 
keenness and asperity. 

It is not improbable, that the strong feelings of Eben- 
ezer Erskine and his associates on this occasion were, in 
a certain degree, exasperated by another proceeding of 
the Assembly, which had taken place a few days before 
the enactment. The Assembly had decided a question 
relating to the settlement of a minister of Kinross, in 
the presbytery of Dunfermline ; to which great opposi- 
tion had been made, both by the parishioners and the 
presbytery ; and in which Mr Ralph Erskine, (the bro- 
ther of Ebenezer,) minister of Dunfermline, and Mr 
Thomas Mair, minister of Orwell, (both of whom were 
afterwards leaders in the secession,) were deeply involved. 
The Assembly had not only appointed the settlement of 
Kinross to be carried into execution, with circumstances 
of peculiar severity ; but they had prohibited the clerks 
from receiving any dissents from their sentence, or a pro- 
test which was offered from the bar by Mr Ralph Er- 
skine and others.* The following Assembly treated 
them with still greater severity. In 1733, Mr Ralph 
Erskine, Mr Mair, and others, were rebuked at the bar, 
for their determined refusal to enrol Mr Stark, then 

* This last circumstance is referred to, in the preface to Ebenezer 
Erskine' s sermon before the Synod of Perth, in the keenest and most in- 
flammatory terms ; and it clearly demonstrates, that the treatment which 
he and his friends had received, in the case of Kinross, made no small 
part in his general complaint against the conduct of the Assembly. 



55 



minister of Kinross, as a member of the presbytery of 
Dunfermline. Neither Mr Ralph Erskine nor Mr 
Mair were members of that Assembly ; but the keenness 
with which they afterwards supported Ebenezer Erskine, 
in resisting the sentence pronounced on his sermon before 
the Synod of Perth, was in all probability irritated, in no 
common degree, by these circumstances. This may be 
fairly admitted, though there is no reason to doubt, that 
the individuals themselves believed that they were guid- 
ed by principle alone, and might not be conscious of any 
other considerations which influenced their conduct. On 
the other hand, the Assembly certainly treated them with 
unmerited and useless severity ; when, not satisfied with 
having rebuked them for their previous obstinacy, they 
commanded them, in the high tone of church authority, to 
acknowledge Mr Stark as minister of Kinross ; though, 
after his enrolment by the Assembly, they had already 
judicially declared their willingness to treat him as a 
brother. There was an intemperance on both sides, to 
which, if the coincidence is fairly considered, there is 
little doubt that some part of the violence, which after- 
wards occasioned the secession, may be fairly imputed. 

It would not be reasonable to judge any of the indivi- 
duals of that period, by the ideas which prevail in the 
present times. The same circumstances would not now 
either produce the same agitation, or be followed by the 
same consequences. But, whatever was the effect of the 
proceedings in regard to the presbytery of Dunfermline, 
it is unquestionably true, that the decisions in the case of 
Kinross, and a few others which occurred nearly at the^ 



56 



same time, connected with the act of Assembly in 1732, 
furnished the leading circumstances which inflamed the 
zeal of the original seceders, and which ultimately led to 
their separation from the church. 

The act itself (of 1732) goes no farther than almost 
every overture on the subject, framed by the Assembly, 
for twenty years before ; and not beyond what had been 
the general practice of the church since 1690. Nor will 
it be easy to show, that the doctrine asserted by Mr Er- 
skine in his two sermons, was ever held or practised by 
the church, at any period since the Revolution ; or that 
it can even be reconciled to the language of the General 
Assemblies at any time before.* 

Ebenezer Erskine certainly went much farther, than 
he was warranted to do by the doctrine and practice of 
the church, at any period since the Reformation. And, 
though he inflamed the minds of the people, by placing 
his doctrine on the authority of scripture, and by assert- 

* The First Book of Discipline had, indeed, placed the election of 
pastors in the people at large. But when the points not sufficiently di- 
gested there were corrected and new-modelled in the Second Book of 
Discipline, the election of pastors is declared to be, " by the judgment 
of the eldership, (that is, of the presbytery,) and the consent of the con- 
gregation ;" this language signifying, according to all the laws and usage 
which followed, the right of the people either to give their consent, or to 
state and substantiate their objections, of which the presbytery were to 
judge. The people were not the electors, even by this rule ; and though 
it gave more power to the presbyteries than was ever afterwards conced- 
ed to them, it gave the people exactly the same place, which the lan- 
guage of the church, both in early and later times, uniformly assigned 
to them. 



57 



ing what was incapable of proof — that he was contending 
for the original laws of Christianity, as well as for 
the ancient law of the Scottish Church — it may be fairly 
admitted, notwithstanding, that he honestly affirmed what 
he had brought himself to believe ; even while the un- 
reasonable intemperance and pertinacity, with which he 
maintained it, can scarcely be denied. 

His doctrines, indeed, derived their chief importance, 
from the keenness with which they were combated in the 
Church Courts ; and from the violence of those who be- 
came his opponents or prosecutors. They who read his 
two sermons in the present times, will not think that 
they were in any respect worthy of the attention which 
was given to them ; and will scarcely find it possible to 
doubt, that, with all the inflammable matter which they 
contain, had they been disregarded by the Church Courts, 
and never brought into question, their defects, in argu- 
ment and substance, would soon have consigned them to 
oblivion. 

It would be equally uninteresting and useless, to give 
in detail the events which rose out of the controversy. 
The clamour excited against the act 1732 became so 
general and violent, that the Assembly found themselves 
compelled to repeal it in 1734. Independent of its 
substance, it was resisted on the strong constitutional 
objection, that it had been enacted by the authority of 
the Assembly itself, without transmission to presbyteries. 
This was undoubtedly a legal ground for the repeal, and 
on this ground it was rested. But it is equally certain, 
that the popular clamour, and the support given without 



58 



doors to the brethren who afterwards seceded, had no 
small influence in producing it. * 

All the public proceedings of the time demonstrate 
this to have been the fact. The commission of 1733 
had pronounced a sentence on the ministers who became 
seceders, " loosing their relation to their parochial 
charges, and appointing this sentence to be intimated from 
their pulpits respectively." In several instances, the 
people tumultuously resisted this intimation, and pre- 
vented it from being made. The General Assembly of 
1734, so far from confirming the sentence of the commis- 
sion, adopted measures which were evidently intended to 
retain the disobedient brethren within the pale of the 
church, and even to preserve them in ministerial commu- 
nion with their brethren, notwithstanding the resistance 
they had given to ecclesiastical authority. They did 
not expressly repeal the sentences of the commission ; but 
they did so in effect, when, without mentioning them, 
they empowered the Synod of Perth and Stirling to do 
every thing in their power for restoring the peace of the 
church, without impeaching its authority. 

There were, at the same time, two feeble attempts made 
to obtain a repeal of the act 1*]12, restoring patronages. 
The commission of 1734 sent an embassy to London 
for this purpose, consisting of Mr Gordon, minister of 
Alford, Mr Willison, minister of Dundee, and Mi- 
Macintosh, minister of Errol. But no success having 
attended this mission, a new deputation was sent to Lon- 
don by the Assembly itself, with the same instructions, in 
1735 ; as particularly mentioned in the account given of 



59 



Lieutenant-Colonel Erskine, in the Life of JDr Erskine.* 
It does not appear that any direct application was made 
to Parliament. But the records of the Assembly in 1736 
contain the address which was presented to the King by 
the three commissioners ; and, though they seem to have 
been sufficiently in earnest, and to have done every thing 
which prudence or expediency could have warranted, they 
were as unsuccessful as their predecessors. 

But what shows, above all 3 the wish of the Assembly 
of 1736 to conciliate the spirit of the times, they passed 
an act in that year, entitled, " An Act against the Intru- 
sion of Ministers into vacant Congregations, and 
Recommendations to Presbyteries concerning Settle- 
ments.'''' It lays down a general doctrine, against the in- 
trusion of ministers, contrary to the inclinations of the 
congregations ; and affirms, that such an intrusion is in 
direct opposition to what had been the principle of the 
Scottish Church since the Reformation. It recommends 
to the judicatories of the church, to have due regard to 
this principle, in planting vacant congregations ; and then 
it admonishes the presbyteries to be at pains to promote 
harmony and unanimity, and to avoid every thing which 
might excite unreasonable exceptions among the people, 
against respectable candidates. 

It is scarcely conceivable, that the act passed at this 
time could have done more than sooth the discontent of the 
people by conciliatory language } unless more had been 
attempted than perhaps was practicable ; and unless the 



* Life of Erskine, p. 7, 8. 



60 



act had been followed up by a train of authoritative de- 
cisions, — which was far from being intended. It does 
appear, however, that, for some years after this time, the 
sentences of the Assemblies, in the settlement of ministers, 
are expressed in a more guarded and softened tone, than 
had been usual during some of the preceding years. They 
discover more solicitude to deal tenderly with the people, 
and not to irritate their humours by unnecessary exer- 
tions of authority. To this extent, the enactment appears 
to have had some effect ; and it ought perhaps in candour 
to be admitted, that the majority of those who were con- 
cerned in it might, at the time, have imagined it possible 
to do more to connect the settlement of ministers with 
the consent of the people, which it supposed to be 
essential, than was afterwards found practicable, even by 
themselves. At the same time, it is equally evident, that 
the members of the Church who had been most deter- 
mined in disregarding the opposition made to the induc- 
tion of presentees, if they concurred in this enactment, 
as they seem to have done, could have intended it as 
nothing more than a concession in words to the preju- 
dices of the people, without any view to its influence on 
their decisions in particular cases, or to such a change of 
system as could have had any practical effects. 

The settlements of presentees, which had been before 
in dependence, and on which former Assemblies had 
decided, though their sentences had not been completely 
executed, appear, from 1736 to 1740, to have been fol- 
lowed out by the authority of the successive Assemblies 
of that time, even where the opposition made to them 



was most determined. But the sentences pronounced 
are expressed in moderate terms > There is an evident 
intention, not to bear hard on individual ministers, who 
were unwilling to be concerned in the execution of such 
sentences. And, though the Assemblies do not appear to 
have judicially departed from the sentences which they 
had pronounced, there are some examples, in which the 
presentees appear to have been tacitly withdrawn, or indi- 
rectly laid aside ; at one time, without the farther inter- 
ference of the Assembly ; and at another, by a resolution 
on their record. In these cases, the enactment of 1736 
had certainly some effect. 

It seems to have operated still more in a few processes 
for settlements, which had not been considered by the 
Assembly before, but in which they evidently showed an 
inclination to conciliate the people. In some instances, 
they, in direct terms, set aside the presentees to whom 
the opposition was most violent. The most remarkable 
example occurred in the case of the parish of Currie, in 
the presbytery of Edinburgh. In 17^0? the Assembly 
refused to proceed to the settlement of Mr Mercer, then 
minister of Aberdalgie, as presentee to the parish of 
Currie, though he had been regularly presented by the 
magistrates and town-council of Edinburgh, the undoubt- 
ed patrons. They set him aside, avowedly on account 
of " the difficulties which attended his call that is, 
on account of the general opposition made to him in the 
parish. They went farther, and followed up their decision, 
by recommending to the magistrates of Edinburgh, to 
offer to the parish of Currie a leet of six candidates, and 



of them to present the individual who should be selected 
by the majority of heritors and elders. It appears that 
this advice was followed. Mr Mercer was no more men- 
tioned, and a minister, acceptable to the parish, was 
afterwards inducted.* This was a remarkable decision, 
very unlike the proceedings of Assemblies since 1730 ; 
and it furnishes a striking example, in which the Assembly 
set aside a presentee, to whose life or doctrine no objec- 
tion whatever could be stated; in which the personal 
views or interests of the presentee were not at all con- 
sulted ; and in which the patrons made no attempt what- 
ever to retain the fruits of the benefice ; though their 
presentee was not only not inducted by the Church 
Courts, but was, without any literary or moral disquali- 
fication, expressly rejected.-f 

There are other examples within the same period, and 
after it, of deference to public opinion, — of presentees 

* The Record of the Assembly expressly bears, that " Mr Mercer com- 
peared, and signified his acquiescence" in the judgment. — Ed. 

•f To those who are acquainted with the history of the time, this decision 
will appear to have been, in a considerable degree, influenced by the state 
of the country, and by the secession from the Church, which was just then 
openly avowed. Mr Mercer was the person who had first moved a censure 
on Ebenezer Erskine's sermon, in the synod of Perth ; and the consequences 
of that measure were always connected with his name. He was in the high- 
est degree obnoxious, from that circumstance, to every order of the people ; 
and the sentence of the Assembly was most gratifying to those, who either 
countenanced or deprecated the secession ; though it was certainly at variance 
with many decisions, in cases as difficult from their own merits, both before 
this time and afterwards. In 1735, Mr Mercer's translation to the parish 
of Dron, in the presbytery of Perth, had been in like manner refused by the 
Assembly. 



63 



set aside, and of other expedients resorted to, to quiet 
the opposition made to the sentences of the Assembly, 
and to soften the asperities of ecclesiastical authority ; 
which were manifestly accommodations to the spirit of 
the times, rather than the result of any change of system 
or of principle, among those who then assumed to them- 
selves the designation of the moderate party. Except- 
ing as to the particular cases, there was not any change 
of system truly intended. The decisions given with, re- 
gard to different parishes were, indeed, by no means uni- 
form or consistent. The induction of ministers, where 
the resistance of the people was both violent and general, 
was frequently sanctioned by the same Assemblies; though 
the language of their decisions was commonly guarded 
and temperate. 

The secession from the Church, which had long been 
foreseen, was at last completed in 1740. All the endea- 
vours of the Assemblies to persuade or conciliate the se- 
ceding ministers, though seven years had elapsed, ulti- 
mately failed. They had formed themselves into an in- 
dependent presbytery, and by printed documents pub- 
lished to the world, as well as by public declarations from 
their pulpits, they had renounced all subjection to the 
authority of the judicatories of the church. They had 
taken this step, long before they were finally ejected from 
their parochial charges. For, to do the Assemblies jus- 
tice, they were not rash in adopting measures, which 
were to render their continuance in the church impossible, 
and to complete their separation from it. To such mea- 
sures, however, they thought themselves at last compelled 



64 

to resort. In 17^0, the Assembly pronounced a sentence 
of deposition on eight ministers who had seceded, and ap- 
pointed their several churches to be declared vacant. 

On the principles on which the Assembly had proceed- 
ed, this measure had certainly become at last unavoid- 
able. And, on the other side, it can scarcely be denied, 
that the seceding ministers, trusting to their influence 
with the populace, and, no doubt, relying on what they 
considered as the argument in their favour, conducted 
themselves with no small degree of intemperance. 

Be this as it may? dispassionate men, at this distance 
of time, must be compelled to admit, that great errors 
were committed on both sides. If Ebenezer Erskine and 
his associates were intemperate in their attacks on the 
Ecclesiastical Courts, and assumed, as original principles 
of the establishment, what had never been acknowledged 
or acted upon, at any period of the history of the church ; 
if they were obstinate and unbending, beyond what either 
the weight of their argument, or the real merit of the 
questions at issue, could warrant ; it may be fairly con- 
ceded, on the other side, that the party in the church, who 
originally decided against them, were rash and injudici- 
ous, in taking up questions, which were much more likely 
to be set at rest by time than by authority. The high 
tone of ecclesiastical discipline, which they adopted, was 
not to be easily reconciled with the language of indirect 
concession afterwards resorted to ; which was but in a 
very slight degree supported, by the particular decisions 
of the time, or by any part of their general practice at a 

subsequent period. The injudicious mixture of forbear- 

l 



65 



ance and severity, manifest in the treatment of the seced- 
ing ministers, so far from being calculated to reclaim or 
persuade them, had an obvious tendency to confirm their 
resolution to form a separate sect for themselves, and, by 
its natural influence on the people who followed them, to 
place them in open and determined hostility with the 
establishment. They relied on their popularity to secure 
to them followers, and probably believed, that it would 
accomplish much more than at first it did ; though the 
remote consequences of their secession have certainly been 
more extensive and considerable, than they could possibly 
have anticipated at its commencement. On the other 
hand, they who at that time had the lead in the manage- 
ment of the church, affected to despise the influence of 
the seceding clergymen, and to consider their secession as 
incapable of producing any serious or permanent effects. 
The anticipations of both are at sufficient variance with 
historical truth, to afford a most impressive lesson to later 
times. 

But, though the consequences of the secession have not 
been precisely what was on either side foreseen, it has un- 
doubtedly made a material and permanent change on the 
ecclesiastical condition of Scotland. The seceders were 
soon divided among themselves ; and their party distinc- 
tions, embittered by their perpetual appeals to the people, 
had an obvious tendency to lower their influence in the 
country, and to retard the progress of their sect. Not- 
withstanding this disadvantage, the number of their fol- 
lowers was gradually, and almost imperceptibly augment- 
ed, in every quarter of the kingdom ; till they have at 

E 



66 



last comprehended a proportion of the population, which 
neither the nature of their controversy with the church, 
nor the weight or talents of their original leaders, could 
have led either their friends or their opponents to anti- 
cipate. 

There was, indeed, from the commencement of their 
separation, one obvious source of their influence and pro- 
gress, of which they well knew how to avail themselves. 
Every new subject of discontent among the people, occa- 
sioned by decisions of General Assemblies, and every 
unsuccessful opposition to the induction of an obnoxious 
presentee, gave to the seceding ministers a new sphere of 
activity, and held out to them the prospect of a new con- 
gregation to be added to their sect. They planted their 
tabernacles, wherever they imagined they would find 
malecontents to fill them ; and it may be naturally con- 
cluded, that, when they selected the situations with 
judgment, they were not often entirely disappointed. 

Besides, they did not confine themselves to their ori- 
ginal grounds of complaint against the establishment, 
arising out of the act of Assembly of 1732. They 
brought forward to the people every other species of 
defection, which they could impute to the church. And 
it is obvious, that there could be no great difficulty in dis- 
covering many objectionable facts in the management of 
ecclesiastical courts, such as may be found in the conduct 
of every institution, in which human beings are concern- 
ed ; or in framing exaggerated statements of real defects 
and corruptions in ecclesiastical proceedings, sufficient to 
inflame the minds of the populace, and to rivet, wherever 



67 



they could excite, their prejudices against the establish- 
ment. 

They, at the same time, devised expedients and re- 
strictions, by which, for many years, they excluded their 
adherents from all communication with the established 
churches ; and, in this way, from all opportunities of 
information, beyond what they received from themselves, 
or by their direction. They assumed the power of li- 
censing preachers, and of afterwards ordaining them ; 
and, as their congregations multiplied, they divided them- 
selves into different presbyteries and synods. But for 
many years they adopted the idea, that it was not safe 
to trust the education of their young men to the univer- 
sities or professors in connexion with the church ; lest 
they should be infected with the corruptions which they 
imputed to the establishment. To render them independ- 
ent, they created academies of their own, both for philo- 
sophy and theology, to which they originally confined 
every young man, who was afterwards to apply to them 
for a license. The effect of this bigotry was equally un- 
friendly to the influence of their sect, and to the perma- 
nent interests of the country. Many of their young men 
came forward, without the education which their situa- 
tion required, and with a very slender portion of infor- 
mation. And nothing but the means employed, to pre- 
vent the people from having recourse to other instructors, 
could have kept them together, while this system was ri- 
gidly adhered to. 

Happily for the country, and for the respectability of 
the seceding ministers, they have at last adopted juster 



68 



and more liberal views, both of the universities, and of 
the qualifications required for pastoral duty. They have 
still professors of divinity. But their prelections are now 
generally confined to the time allotted for the vacations 
in the universities ; and the candidates for orders, in the 
secession, have at least the means of being as well edu- 
cated as the ministers of the establishment. 

This fact, whatever additional strength it may give to 
the secession, is of no small importance to the country at 
large. For, from the congregations of eight seceding 
ministers, deposed by the Assembly in 1740, (adding to 
them the Presbytery of Relief, which sprung from the 
deposition of a single individual many years later,) there 
have risen up at last, nearly three hundred and sixty 
seceding meetings ; which, at a moderate computation, 
may, in round numbers, contain a fourth or a fifth part of 
the population of Scotland.* 

When so large a proportion of the inhabitants of the 
kingdom is concerned, it is at least consolatory to believe, 
that they have access to instructors who are qualified to 
do them justice. The doctrines now delivered in the 

* This is reprinted exactly as it stood. The proportion stated, how- 
ever, is evidently merely conjectural. The Editor is not aware of any 
published data, on which any thing like a strictly accurate ratio could be 
stated. But there is great reason to think, that the proportion given is 
considerably beyond the fact. The Author, perhaps, thought only of the 
numbers attending the Churches of the Establishment, and those of the 
Secession. In any other view, it is believed that the estimate very much 
overrates the numbers of the proper seceders, with reference to the whole 
population of Scotland. — Ed. 



69 



seceding meetings are, in no essential article, different 
from the instruction received in the established churches. 
Though, by being more numerous, and always well edu- 
cated, the established clergy can certainly produce a much 
greater number of considerable men, it cannot be denied, 
that among the ministers belonging to the secession, there 
are individuals not inferior to the most respectable mini- 
sters of the establishment ; and it ought to be in candour 
admitted, that their people are, by a great proportion of 
thern^ as well instructed as those who adhere to the 
church. 

The country at large certainly reaps an important ad- 
vantage from this change of circumstances. For, in spite 
of the circumstances which have prevented either the 
civil or ecclesiastical rulers from attending to the progress 
of secession, it has been always increasing, from its com- 
mencement to the present times ; and, in one or other of 
its different sects, it is constantly acquiring additional 
strength, from causes which it is now in vain, and per- 
haps impossible, to counteract. 

The ecclesiastical rulers affected to despise the indi- 
viduals who were the original seceders, as men of such 
limited information and capacity, that they could only 
create an influence among the lowest of the people. This 
was an exaggeration beyond the truth ; for many of 
them were not inferior to their contemporaries ; and, as 
preachers, they had popular talents sufficient to secure 
the attachment of their followers. And, though their 
learning and their individual talents had been as incon- 



70 



siderable as was affirmed, the popularity of the topics, 
which they derived from the original occasion of the 
secession, and of others with which they were, from its 
commencement, incorporated, and on which the seceding 
clergy were perpetually declaiming, gave them an influ- 
ence on great multitudes of the people, of which it was 
impossible to deprive them. 

But all the advantages which they possessed would 
have little availed them, if no new occasions of discontent 
had arisen, from the management of the Ecclesiastical 
Courts. The secession, well or ill founded, had undoubt- 
edly placed the rulers of the church in circumstances of 
peculiar difficulty and delicacy. * 

It has been already stated, that, for many years after 
the enactment of the statute of 1712, the settlement of 
a great proportion of vacant parishes had been effectuated 
by means of a call from heritors and elders, without the 
intervention of the patrons ; — and that, in many cases in 
which a presentation was laid before a presbytery, they 
were accustomed, without taking much notice of it, to pro- 
ceed in the settlement on the call from heritors and elders. 
The patrons, who gained their object, in the induction of 
the presentees, seldom thought it necessary to remonstrate 
against a practice, which was neither warranted by law, 
nor, if the subject'had been well considered, justified by 
expediency. It served to keep down the prejudices of 
the people against the law of patronage, which, under this 
management, seldom contradicted their wishes. But it 
certainly aggravated the difficulty of the Church Courts in 



71 



other cases, in which the patrons demanded the settle- 
ment of their presentees, notwithstanding the opposition 
made to them by any number of the parishioners. 

When the patrons began to exercise their rights more 
frequently, and with less attention to the wishes of the 
people ; and when the people saw, that they had a ready 
access to ministers of their own selection, in seceding 
meetings ; the opposition to presentees became more in- 
veterate and unmanageable ; and it was soon found to 
be a matter of extreme difficulty and embarrassment, in 
the Church Courts, to decide between the patrons and the 
people, without sacrificing to either what, by one party 
at least, was held to be the constitutional law of the 
church, or of the state. 

The two parties, who were then understood to divide 
the church, were not exactly characterized by the same 
doctrines which have since distinguished them. Both, at 
that time, admitted the constitutional necessity of a call 
from a parish, to become the foundation of a pastoral re- 
lation between a presentee and the parishioners. But 
they who called themselves the moderate party affirmed 
the legal call to be limited to heritors and elders, (accord- 
ing to the spirit of the act of Assembly of 1732,) while the 
other party contended (as the original seceders had done) 
for the right of the parishioners at large, or at least of the 
heads of families, to be admitted as callers. The former 
had the support of the government, who, by this time, 
perpetually interfered in the management of Assemblies, 
and especially on every point which related to the settle- 
ment of ministers ; while the latter derived their chief 



72 



strength from popular favour, and from the influence of 
those who deprecated every measure, which they thought 
calculated to alienate the people from the established 
church, and to lessen the usefulness and respectability of 
the parochial ministers. 

Archibald Earl of Isla, afterwards Duke of Argyle, 
came to have the chief management of Scotch affairs ; 
and under him Dr Patrick Cumin, one of the ministers 
of the city, and Professor of Church History in the 
University of Edinburgh, was the chief ostensible leader 
in the church. Dr Cumin was certainly a clergyman 
both of worth and of talents. His distinction as a man 
of letters, and as a preacher, entitled him to every de- 
gree of respect. His powers of conversation raised him 
above his contemporaries. His capacity for the manage- 
ment of public business gave him sufficient advantages, 
in his political character ; though his influence, in a great 
measure, depended on the administration which supported 
him. 

The party under his management did not pretend to 
attempt the abolition of calls, in the settlement of mini- 
sters ; and always professed to require the call of heritors 
and elders, before they gave effect to a presentation. 

But, under their management, it was seldom difficult 
to procure such a call as satisfied them, even in cases in 
which the great body of the parishioners were hostile to 
the settlements. By the influence of the patrons, which 
came to be more keenly exerted than was usual at an 
earlier period, and with the help of non-resident heritors, 
they seldom failed to effect their purpose. And, when the 



73 



Assemblies executed their sentences by committees of 
their own, the induction of the presentees was completed, 
even where the opposition was strongest, without either 
encroaching on the scruples of one class, or being defeated 
by the timidity of another. 

It must be evident, however, that the appointment of 
such committees was neither sanctioned by constitutional 
law, nor justified by any experience of its expediency. It 
diminished the immediate difficulty of executing the sen- 
tences of the Assembly. But it had no tendency to re- 
move the prejudices of the people ; and was evidently 
calculated to lower, in their eyes, the respectability of 
the ministers who were inducted by means so unusual and 
irregular. 

The last committee on this service was appointed in 
1751. After that time the Assemblies peremptorily 
required the execution of their sentences to be completed 
by the presbyteries respectively. 

There was at first great difficulty in carrying this reso- 
lution into effect. Many individuals, who conscientiously 
believed that the consent of the congregation was essen- 
tial to the pastoral relation, thought that they were bound 
in duty to decline to take any active part in the settle- 
ment of ministers, to whom a general opposition was 
made by the parishioners. On the other hand, the Ge- 
neral Assemblies were resolute in maintaining the autho- 
rity of their sentences ; and the ministers who ventured 
to disobey them, subjected themselves to the severest 
ecclesiastical censures. 

The first case which occurred, after this mode of pro- 



74 



eeeding was finally resolved on, was the settlement of In- 
verkeithing, in the presbytery of Dunfermline. Though 
there was, in that instance, a call sustained by the Assem- 
bly, it depended in a considerable degree on non-resident 
heritors ; and the opposition made by the congregation 
was violent, and almost general. 

The ruling party in the church were, by this time, 
fully prepared to apply ecclesiastical censures to the dis- 
obedience of church authority ; for which, they were 
persuaded, no other remedy could be found : And, when 
they came to appoint the presbytery of Dunfermline to 
admit the presentee to Inverkeithing, they not only en- 
joined every member of the presbytery to attend the 
admission, but declared that the quorum should be Jioe, 
in place of three, which is the legal quorum. They sent 
the presbytery from their bar to Inverkeithing,* and 
required them, after admitting the presentee, to report 
their obedience to the Assembly, on a specified day. 
When the members of the presbytery returned, they re- 
ported that, of their whole number, only three ministers 
had attended ; and that they, not being a quorum, accord- 
ing to the terms of the Assembly's appointment, did not 
feel themselves authorised to proceed to the admission. 
After hearing the defence of those members of the pres- 
bytery who had absented themselves, of whom the greatest 
number pleaded conscientious scruples, the Assembly ap- 
proved of the conduct of those who had attended, who, 
without the defined quorum, were not authorised to 

* About twelve miles distant from Edinburgh.— Ed. 



75 



execute the Assembly's sentence, and accepted apologies 
for the absence of some other individuals. Of six mem- 
bers of the presbytery, who pleaded at the bar of the 
Assembly conscientious scruples, they solemnly deposed 
one from his office as a minister — Mr Thomas Gillespie, 
minister of Carnock — and ejected him from his living. 
There was then no time to complete the admission of 
the presentee at Inverkeithing, during the sitting of the 
Assembly of that year. The presbytery were therefore 
again appointed to execute the sentence, and to report 
their obedience to the Synod of Fife ; and the Assembly, 
besides, suspended from their judicative capacity, in the 
superior Ecclesiastical Courts, every member of that 
presbytery who should be absent, on the day appointed 
for the induction of the presentee, and who should not 
offer to the Synod of Fife a relevant excuse for his ab- 
sence. This sentence of suspension was afterwards ap- 
plied to three members of the presbytery ; Mr Hunter, 
minister of Saline, Dr Baling, minister of Cleish, and 
Mr Spence, minister of Orwell. 

The censures of the church, on this occasion, fell on in- 
dividuals who were all acknowledged to be men of integ- 
rity and principle, and of whose sincerity there was no 
suspicion.* Mr Gillespie, in particular, on whom the 
severest censure fell, was charged with nothing but his 
absence from Inverkeithing on the day appointed for the 
induction of the presentee ; for, excepting his attendance, 
he had no official duty imposed on him which could have 

* This sentence of suspension was recalled about twelve or fourteen years 
afterwards. 



76 



been affected by his absence. It has always been admit- 
ted, by those who had best access to know him, that no- 
thing but what he considered as a sense of duty, had pre- 
vented him from obeying the appointment of the Assem- 
bly. He was indeed one of the most inoffensive and up- 
right men of his time. He was equally zealous and faith- 
ful in his pastoral duties ; and his private life was irre- 
proachable. His talents were certainly underrated by 
those who marked him out, among his brethren, as the 
most eligible victim of a disobedience, in which so many 
were associated. But he had done nothing to distin- 
guish him from the rest. He had never entered deeply 
into ecclesiastical business, and was at no time a political 
intriguer. And, when all these circumstances are consi- 
dered, there was at least great reason to have hesitated in 
pronouncing on him a sentence of deposition.* 

But the Assembly seized on this occasion, to bear 
down, by a strong example, all future opposition to 
church authority. His deposition gave rise to a new sect 
of dissenters, afterwards known by the designation of 
" the Presbytery of Relief which has maintained it- 
self ever since, and has added a considerable population 

* The temper of mind with which he received the censure inflicted on him, 
is not unworthy to be recorded. The Moderator of the Assembly pronounc- 
ed the sentence of deposition from the chair ; and Mr Gillespie stood at the 
bar to receive it. When he had heard it to an end, he replied, in these strik- 
ing and impressive words : " I thank God, that to me it is given, not only to 
believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to suffer for his sake." 
Whether he was well or ill informed, no man suspected that this scriptural 
expression of his feelings did not come from the sincerity and the fulness of 
his heart. 



77 



to the dissenters from the Established Church. Mr Gil- 
lespie became the founder of this sect very unwillingly. 
He was partial to the establishment to the end of his life ; 
and of this he gave a striking proof, when, on his death- 
bed, he advised his congregation to apply to the church, 
after his decease, to be restored to her communion — which 
they afterwards successfully did. 

Whatever the Assemblies gained, in point of authority, 
among their own members, by all these proceedings, it is 
unquestionable, that the severity of them contributed at 
the time, in a considerable degree, to the progress of the 
secession. The active rulers of the church affected to 
despise the seceders. But the fact was unquestionable, 
that every church settlement, effected by the strong arm 
of authority, in opposition to the great body of the pa- 
rishioners, opened a new dissenting meeting, and separated 
a new congregation from the communion of the establish- 
ment. 

From 1752 to 17^3, there are not many examples 
which occur, in the proceedings of Assemblies, of the 
settlement of ministers effected, when the opposition to 
them was very considerable. In two strong cases, the 
presentees were set aside, from the inexpediency of their 
settlements — in one of them, where the opposition was 
greatest, by a compromise, under which the presentation 
was relinquished, and a different minister was inducted ; 
in another, after both the presentation and the call had 
been sustained by the Assembly, because the inexpediency 
of the settlement was notwithstanding admitted. There 



78 



is scarcely more than one example besides, during this 
interval, of a strong opposition to a presentee whose set- 
tlement was appointed by the Assembly ; and none, in 
which the presbyteries appear to have shown any reluc- 
tance to obey the sentence. 

After this time, there were several examples of settle- 
ments appointed by the Assembly, to which great opposi- 
tion was made ; and there occurred some cases, between 
1765 and 1774> which occasioned more obstinate and pro- 
tracted litigation, than is to be found on record before 
that time, since 1732, or, indeed, since the Revolution 
in 1688. 

But, by this time, the Duke of Argyle, who had, for 
so many years, directed the influence of government in 
the management of the church, had died ; and Dr Cumin, 
whose political influence had been intimately connected 
with his, had no longer the same sway as a leader of the 
church. Dr Robertson, one of the ablest and most elo- 
quent men whom his country has ever produced, whose 
personal character entitled him, in the highest degree, to 
the respect and confidence of his friends, and whose cele- 
brity as an historian will reach the latest posterity, be- 
came, from 1763, the avowed leader of the party who 
had assumed the designation of the moderate party in 
the church. 

He had the magnanimity to emancipate himself and 
his party from a dependence on any great man. He had 
as much of the influence of government to assist him, as 
had ever been given to the management of the church. 



79 



But, though he received the support of every administra- 
tion, he was not so connected with any individual, that 
his influence could be held out as depending on him. 

Dr Drysdale, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and 
afterwards principal clerk of the General Assembly, was 
his respectable coadjutor, in the active management of 
his party. His indefatigable industry and talents, added 
to the weight and sound judgment of Dr Robertson, had 
no small effect in giving strength and solidity to the sys- 
tem, which was in substance before, and from this time 
avowedly, pursued. 

In Dr Cumin's time, it had never been directly or pub- 
licly affirmed, that the call of heritors and elders was 
not essential to the induction of a minister. On the con- 
trary, the idea that it was essential had been held up to 
the public, as the general principle adhered to. And yet 
it cannot be denied by any one who impartially examines 
the transactions of that period, that there were then as 
many examples of what have been called violent settle- 
ments, or inductions to parochial charges, in opposition 
to the great body of the people, as at any subsequent pe- 
riod. Nor can it be pretended, that the settlements of 
that time did not, in many parishes, add as much in pro- 
portion to the number of seceders from the church, as any 
of the settlements which were carried into execution after 
1763. 

At the same time, it was at least pretended, during that 
period, that the principle was adhered to. And, when 
it afterwards came to be avowedly departed from, many 



80 



of those individuals who had been leading men in Dr 
Cumin's time, and even Dr Cumin himself, professing 
still to adhere to the same doctrine, became zealous oppo- 
nents of those who were called the moderate party in Dr 
Robertson's time. 

Yet it must in candour be admitted, that, however the 
principle had been supported before, by means of non-re- 
siding heritors, the difference in practice between the dis- 
puted settlements, before and after 1763, was by no means 
considerable. 

The different situation of the parties was, no doubt, 
obvious. In 1 725, and afterwards, they who called them- 
selves the moderate party had to contend, not only with 
the people, but with what was then no small proportion 
of the clergy, those who extended their ideas of calls to 
the whole body of parishioners ; many of whom went so 
far as to place the claims of the people on the jus divi- 
num. But this description of the clergy had been gra- 
dually dying out, and was now no longer considerable. 
The opponents of Dr Robertson professed to contend for 
nothing more, than what they who now called themselves 
the moderate party had before asserted, — the necessity of 
a call from the heritors and elders, as the foundation of 
the pastoral relation. Both parties professed to reserve 
to the people their right to object, for reasons shown. 
But Dr Robertson and his friends professed to confine 
the right of objection to the return of the edict, and then 
to limit it to objections to the life or doctrine of the pre- 
sentee ; while the others maintained, that the people had 



Hi 



a right to offer their objections to the call, for the judg- 
ment of the presbytery, at the time when the merits of 
the call were to be decided on. 

The old forms of proceeding, notwithstanding this dif- 
ference of opinion, were still adhered to ; and no settle- 
ment was effected, till an attempt was made to procure a 
call. In difficult cases, any of the parishioners were ad- 
mitted to subscribe the call, as well as the heritors and 
elders; and though Dr Robertson was extremely cau- 
tious in departing from the ancient technical language 
which had been in use in the sentences of the General 
Assembly, he came gradually to introduce the term con- 
currence in place of the term call. Of this innovation, 
there is, perhaps, not more than one example in Dr Cumin's 
time ; and that occurs in a case, in which, though the 
Assembly sustained both the presentation and the con- 
currence, they, notwithstanding, set aside the presentee, 
and applied to the patron to present another, which he 
afterwards did. 

It was Dr Robertson's policy, that, in effecting settle- 
ments, even the most difficult, by presentations, the old 
forms, in other points, should be always observed, as they 
still are. But the principle was ultimately avowed and 
adhered to, that a presentation to a benefice was in all 
cases to be made effectual, independent of the merits of 
the call or concurrence. Cases, as has been already stat- 
ed, have sometimes occurred, in which presentees have 
been set aside. But this can scarcely be shown to have 
happened, in Dr Robertson's management, merely from 
defects in the concurrence from the parish. The general 

F 



82 



doctrine, that a presentation, adhered to by the presentee, 
should in all cases be made effectual, without any reser- 
vation, founded on the merits of the call, or on the num- 
ber of heritors, elders, or parishioners, who concurred or 
dissented, was uniformly maintained, during the whole 
period of Dr Robertson's influence in the General Assem- 
blies. 

The influence of Government was, no doubt, steadily 
employed to support the measures of his party, and every 
successive administration came to be persuaded that sound 
policy required them to support him. Though indivi- 
dual clergymen in Scotland might be as independent as 
the members of any church in the world, every one, who 
is acquainted with human life, must be aware of the 
weight which must always accompany this kind of poli- 
tical influence. 

But it will be admitted by every individual, at the 
same time, who has had sufficient access to estimate Dr 
.Robertson's management, that the system, which he and 
Dr Drysdale did more than any of their predecessors to 
consolidate, never could have been conducted or matur- 
ed, with more moderation or sagacity than they brought 
to it. 

The same general system has been followed by their 
successors. But the facility with which they have been 
able to conduct it is, unquestionably, to be in a great 
measure imputed to the moderation and firmness united, 
which eminently distinguished Dr Robertson ; and to the 
sound good sense and splendid eloquence which he uni- 
formly brought to the subject, in much more difficult 



83 



times than they have had to encounter ; supported by the 
sagacity, the assiduity, and the conciliating manners of 
Dr Drysdale. 

During Dr Robertson's time, the struggle with the 
people was perpetual ; and the opposition to presentees so 
extremely pertinacious, as in a great measure to engross 
the business of the Assemblies. The parties in the church 
were then much more equally balanced than they have 
ever been since that period. The measures which were 
adopted, in the face of such perpetual opposition, it re- 
quired no common talents to manage or defend ; especi- 
ally considering, that the leaders in opposition were such 
men as Dr Dick, Dr Macqueen, Dr Erskine, Mr Steven- 
son of St Madois, Mr Freebairn of Dumbarton, Mr An- 
drew Crosbie, &c. ; men of the first ability in the coun- 
try ; and some of them possessed of an eloquence for a 
popular assembly, to which there was nothing superior 
in the church or in the state. 

Dr Robertson's firmness was not easily shaken ; but 
his caution and prudence never deserted him. He held 
it for a maxim, never wantonly to offend the prejudices 
of the people, and rather to endeavour to manage, than 
directly to combat them. Some of the settlements in dis- 
pute were protracted for eight or ten years together ; and, 
though the General Assemblies steadily pursued their sys- 
tem, and uniformly appointed the presentees to be induct- 
ed, their strongest sentences were not vindictive, and sel- 
dom went beyond the leading points to which they were 
directed. 

The perpetual delays created, before the processes 



84 



against the induction of presentees were finally determin- 
ed, were certainly not in favour of the parishes in regard 
to which they occurred ; and the proceedings subjected 
the individual litigants to very considerable expense, 
without bringing any advantage to them in the end. But 
they answered another purpose, which was ultimately in 
favour of the system pursued by the ecclesiastical rulers ; 
of which its ablest supporters could scarcely have pre- 
dicted either the extent or the consequences. The zeal 
of the j>eople was irritated, and at last exhausted, by pro- 
cesses in the Assemblies so long protracted, and so uni- 
formly unsuccessful. Their opposition to presentees did 
not become less frequent, or less difficult to manage at 
home. But the people became gradually less inclined to 
bring their opposition to the Assemblies. Before Dr Ro- 
bertson retired from the management of church affairs, in 
1781, there were, in comparison, few cases of disputed 
settlements brought to the General Assembly. Their 
number has been gradually diminishing ever since ; till, 
at last, an example of such a process scarcely now occurs 
in the course of several years. 

The great majority of the church are convinced, that 
the system of patronage, so long resisted in the Church 
Courts, is at last completely established. Even many of 
those individuals, who held a different doctrine, thirty or 
forty years ago, do not think it expedient, in the present 
times, to revive a controversy, which such a long series 
of decisions in the Supreme Court is held to have settled. 
It appears to them, that, at this distance of time, the re- 
vival of the controversy would not only contribute no- 



85 



thing to lessen the evils which they still impute to the 
system which has been so long acted upon ; but that, 
without any real advantage to the country, it would ag- 
gravate the difficulties which occur in effectuating the in- 
duction of individual presentees, and add greatly to the 
irritations which serve so much to distract and to divide 
the people. 

Whether it was originally expedient to have adopted 
the system ; whether the system was, at any time, agree- 
able to the constitutional laws and usages, either of the 
church or of the state ; and whether the support given to 
it by his Majesty's Government, under every successive 
administration, was dictated by sound policy ; are quite 
different questions. 

Dr Robertson's prudence led him to do nothing, which 
might unnecessarily agitate questions of this kind. Of 
this fact, no example more striking can be given, than 
that which arises from his conduct with regard to the 
clause, which was first introduced into the annual instruc- 
tions given to the Commission in 1736, relating to " the 
grievance of patronage and which was uniformly con- 
tinued in the instructions given by every Assembly from 
that time, till after Dr Robertson ceased to take any 
management in the church.* 

* Though the Commission has been often mentioned in this detail, the 
nature of that court has not been so explained, that a stranger to the 
Scottish establishment will easily understand it. The General Assembly 
annually appoints a committee, which usually consists of all the members 
of Assembly, with full power to decide causes, which the Assembly have 
not had time to discuss, and which they remit to this committee, which 



86 



The clause was in the following terms : " And the 
Assembly do farther empower and direct the said Com- 
mission to make application to the King and Parliament, 
[ for redress of the grievance of patronage, in case a favour- 
able opportunity for so doing shall occur, during the sub- 
sistence of this Commission." The language of such a 
clause, continued in the instructions to every Commission 
from the year 1736, till after Dr Robertson retired from 
the management of public business, which he did in the 
year 1781, demonstrates how deeply rooted the original 
ideas of the church on this subject had been ; and at the 
same time shows the caution of Dr Robertson, long after 
he and his friends had practically abandoned every opi- 
nion on which the clause had been originally framed, in 
avoiding to stir an unnecessary question in the General As- 

l:as the name of " the Commission of the General Assembly adding, 
besides, instructions to watchover every thing in which the general in- 
terest of the church appears to be concerned. The Commission has full 
power to decide finally in the causes remitted to them ; and no appeal 
can be taken against their decisions. There is, however, a regulation, 
which provides a remedy against any supposed injustice in the sentences 
of the Commission ; which is equivalent, in its practical effects, to the 
power of appealing. There may be a complaint, at the instance either 
of a party, or of a member of the court, brought to the next Assembly, 
against any sentence of a Commission, in which it can be stated that the 
Commission has exceeded its powers ; and on such a complaint, the 
Assembly may reverse or alter the sentence complained of. 

The Commission has four stated meetings in the year, in May, Au- 
gust, November, and March. The Moderator of Assembly, on the ap- 
plication of a certain number of members, may call an extraordinary 
meeting, when any unusual circumstances require it. The quorum of 
the Commission is thirty-one, of whom twenty-one must be ministers. 



87 



sembly, by a premature attempt to expunge it. He was 
aware of the popular prejudices in favour of an instruction, 
which had been so long familiar to the public. He had 
not forgotten the violent struggle which had been made 
against his party, in the General Assemblies of 1765 and 
1768, when overtures were introduced for the purpose 
of instituting a public inquiry into the causes, to which 
the rapid progress of secession from the Established 
Church was to be imputed ; and, in order to counteract 
them, to obtain, if possible, a more popular mode of in- 
ducting the parochial ministers. He had successfully re- 
sisted the keen opposition which was made to him, on 
both these occasions. But he was too considerate to go 
back, directly and unnecessarily, to the same subject ; for 
the purpose of expunging from the instructions to the 
Commission what had so long been considered as a dead 
letter on the records of Assembly. 

The clause was, however, expunged, almost immedi- 
ately after he retired from public business. There was 
not, perhaps, then the same reason for any delicacy on 
the subject ; and the proposal met with no opposition. 
The object of the clause was so directly contrary to the 
system which had been pursued for so many years, that 
even they whose general opinions would have led them to 
oppose the innovation, were so conscious of the glaring 
inconsistency between the conduct of Assemblies and 
their annual instructions, that they thought it equally 
inexpedient and indecorous to agitate a question on such 
a subject. 

The language of the majority in Assemblies, at this 



88 



time, universally was, that the secession from the church, 
instead of increasing, was on the decline ; and that the 
superior character and talents of the established clergy 
were gradually weakening its resources, and would ulti- 
mately exhaust them. 

Experience has not verified these sanguine expecta- 
tions. At the distance of a few years after Dr Robert- 
son retired, the people, disgusted with unsuccessful pro- 
cesses before the Assembly, relinquished the plan of their 
predecessors ; and came seldom to the Assembly with ap- 
peals from the sentences of the Inferior Courts, appoint- 
ing the settlement of presentees whom they resisted. But 
they began to do more quietly, or with less observation 
than formerly, what was not less unfriendly to the estab- 
lishment. In ordinary cases, they now leave the Church 
Courts to execute their sentences, without opposition ; 
and set themselves immediately to rear a seceding meet- 
ing-house, which very frequently carries off a large pro- 
portion of the inhabitants of the parish. The bustle in 
Assemblies is in a great measure over ; or a disputed 
settlement no longer creates any serious interest or divi- 
sion in the Church Courts. But the silent increase of 
seceding meetings has gradually weakened and contract- 
ed the influence of the establishment, on the general po- 
pulation. 

It ought, however, to be mentioned; at the same time, 
that many additions have been made to the number of se- 
ceding congregations, by an increasing population, for 
which no adequate provision has been made by the erec- 
tion of new churches within the establishment. 



89 



But, independent of all the circumstances which can 
be mentioned, as serving either to promote or to weaken 
the secession, it must be evident to every man of obser- 
vation, that this view of the state of the country is not 
favourable to its general interests. The expense occa- 
sioned by so many additional establishments, is manifestly 
a heavy burden on property of every kind. But setting 
aside this consideration, which is now irremediable, it is 
obviously a subject of serious regret, that so large a pro- 
portion of the people should be in a state of separation 
from the establishment ; and so much the more, that there 
is now no essential difference in the education, in the 
doctrines, in the standards, or in the general character, of 
the established and the seceding clergy. They are all 
attached to the same constitution of the Presbyterian 
Church, and have all the same general ideas of pastoral 
duty. 

The original causes of separation have not, therefore, 
the same aspect as when the secession began. Though 
the ministers of the church and of the secession may still 
have different views of some points, which come into dis- 
cussion in the Ecclesiastical Courts, there do not now 
appear to be many of the same causes of hostility between 
them, as pastors of the people, which operated at first to 
produce the secession. While they do the same duty, by 
the same rules, with equal capacity and purity of inten- 
tion, there do not appear to be many strong reasons for 
continuing a separation, which is neither favourable to 
the progress of religion, nor to the real interests of the 
country. 



90 



In these circumstances, can it be thought impertinence 
or presumption, to suggest to both, that the points on 
which their present separation turns, may " deserve to 
become the subject of a serious and candid review ?" 

Would it be either degrading or unfriendly to the 
Established Church, if she were to declare her willing- 
ness to receive into her communion, on the same footing 
as her own Chapels of Ease, such of the seceding mini- 
sters and their congregations as might be willing to return ; 
sustaining their ordinations, and leaving their congrega- 
tions to provide for them, as they do at present ? 

Some individuals of the Relief Society have alreadybeen 
received on this footing. And, if the disposition to place 
the same confidence in the other descriptions of seceders 
were shown by the church, though the effects might not 
be immediate, and, on the most favourable supposition, 
could only operate very gradually, there can be little 
doubt, that such a union might be substantially effected 
in the end, as would very materially promote both the 
interests of religion and the best interests of the kingdom. 

Patronage, the great bone of contention at first, could 
be no subject of difference, with regard to chapels where 
no patronage could exist ; while ministerial communion 
maintained, among every order of Presbyterian clergy 
in the country, would serve to unite the people again ; 
who ought never to be divided, as long as they adhere 
to the same standards of discipline and of doctrine. 

Such an idea as this will no doubt be keenly reprobated 
by many individuals, both of the establishment and the 
secession ; and, indeed, the number of both, who, on the 



91 



first mention of the subject, will reject it, will probably 
be so great, as to give little prospect of its being at all 
generally adopted. There are points, besides, supposing 
it were practicable, especially in what relates to discipline 
and order, which would require to become a subject of 
compromise, and perhaps of forbearance, on both sides ; 
and, in managing the discussions which would be neces- 
sary, both would have occasion for all the good temper 
and piety which they could bring to them. 

But if the idea itself is really founded, either in good 
sense, or in sound policy ; if it were once sincerely adopt- 
ed, on either side, and especially on the side of the estab- 
lishment ; there is not much reason to doubt, that it would 
ultimately, though perhaps slowly and gradually, work 
its way into practice. And there cannot be a shadow of 
doubt, that if this were to happen, its effects would soon 
appear to be equally in favour of the establishment itself, 
of the dissenting congregations received into the church, 
and of the general prosperity of this part of the United 
Kingdom. 

Our southern neighbours, who are in general but little 
acquainted with the interior (if that expression may be 
allowed) of our church history, or with the sects which 
have risen among us during the last century, think per- 
haps with some degree of contempt of the points at issue, 
between the different parties in the church, or between 
the church and the secession. 

The Reformation in England was carried on, from its 
commencement, under the authority of the Sovereign, and, 
in the constitution of the Protestant English Church, left 



92 



none of the same points, either for claims or discussions 
among the people. The Reformation in Scotland was 
the work of the nobles and the people, in opposition to 
the Government ; and the Protestant ministers were most 
efficient coadjutors to both, in obtaining the object for 
which they contended. The constitution of the Scottish 
Church, founded, as they believed, on the original insti- 
tutes of Christianity, was the work of the clergy, support- 
ed by the nobility ; and every order of the people took a 
deep and personal interest in it. 

The questions in dispute, in later times, have natur- 
ally arisen from the original forms and laws under which 
the Presbyterian Church was established. The points at 
issue between the different parties have been the result 
of the general spirit of liberty and independence in reli- 
gion, which the inhabitants of Scotland inherit from their 
first reformers ; and which is incorporated with the whole 
frame and texture of their ecclesiastical government. 

There is great room for free discussion, and for differ- 
ence of opinion, with regard to all of them. There is 
equal room for forbearance among themselves. And they 
discharge their duty with most fidelity, both to the com- 
munity and to one another, who follow out, with most 
sincerity, their best views of public law and general 
utility ; and who most effectually divest themselves of 
private competitions and party spirit. There is no perfec- 
tion attainable, in the present condition of human nature. 
But he will never reproach himself for his public conduct, 
whose sense of duty has more influence in directing him, 
than either his personal interests or his private affections. 



93 



The Church of England is at least as much divided as 
the Church of Scotland has ever been ; and has as great 
a proportion of her population who desert her churches, 
or withdraw from her communion, as will be found in 
any part of the secession in Scotland. The points of dif- 
ference, in the two countries, are not the same ; and the 
causes of separation are at least as much to be imputed 
to the clergy of England, as any which exist in Scotland 
can be ascribed to the clergy there ; while the sources of 
division in England are at least as irreconcileable, as any 
which can be traced in the sister kingdom. 

The separatists in Scotland have one advantage, to 
which the sectaries in England have no claim. On all 
subjects of discipline and pastoral duty, they follow the 
same general rule with the Established Church. They 
make no innovations in the forms of worship, or in their 
public doctrines ; and the manner in which they dis- 
charge their clerical functions is exactly the same with 
that which distinguishes the parochial clergy. 

The ecclesiastical divisions existing among the people 
of Scotland are at least not more unreasonable in them- 
selves, nor are they more beyond the reach of a remedy, 
than those which take place among their southern neigh- 
bours ; unless their experience shall verify a maxim, 
which has often been held on other subjects, and is too often 
founded in truth — that the nearer men approach to one 
another in their opinions without uniting, the more irre- 
concileable their differences are apt to become. 

In the general sketch which the preceding pages con- 
tain of the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, the laws 



94 



relating to the nomination and induction of ministers, 
and the consequences connected with their progress and 
execution, have suggested the chief part of the subject. 
This was unavoidable ; because the proceedings in the 
settlement of parochial ministers have, in the periods re- 
ferred to, occupied the chief attention, both of the Church 
Courts and of the people ; and have been, almost exclu- 
sively, the origin of all the distinction of parties among 
the members of the church. 

L)r Erskine of Edinburgh, in his conduct as a member 
of the Ecclesiastical Courts, which has given occasion to 
this part of the appendix to the account of his Life, was 
classed with those who have, of late years, formed the 
minority in General Assemblies, and were opposed to the 
party who followed the system of Dr Robertson.* The 
preceding sketch is sufficient to show the points on which 
the parties were divided ; as well as the progress of opi- 
nions relating to them, from one period to another. It 
will serve, at the same time, to ascertain the general 
principles which Dr Erskine adopted, and by which he 
wished to be distinguished in public life. 

The controversies relating to patronage are certainly 
now, in a great measure, at an end. And whether the 
policy, ultimately adopted by the church, has been agree- 

* It is perhaps unnecessary to say, except that the calm impartiality, with 
which the Treatise is written, might really leave it in doubt with a stranger 
to the history, that the Author was all his life a firm supporter of the views of 
that class of the clergy with whom Dr Erskine was connected ; though no 
such connexion would have induced him to act contrary to what he consci- 
entio usly believed to be right. — Ed. 



95 



able, or contrary, to its original constitution, and whether 
it is at last to be considered as wise or impolitic — the 
whole weight of government being uniformly given to the 
ruling party — it would now be equally unwise and inex- 
pedient to disturb the decisions of more than half a cen- 
tury, and to agitate the country anew by controversies, 
which, with the influence of government on one side, 
would always have the same termination. 

These are certainly the present views of by much the 
greatest proportion, both of the clergy and laity ; and it 
is obvious, that the party distinctions can no longer be 
rested on the same grounds. 

That there are parties still, is unquestionably true. 
But it would not be easy for the zealots of either side, to 
state clearly or intelligibly, to impartial spectators, the pre- 
cise points on which the party distinctions now turn. The 
one may perhaps, in some cases, be disposed to give more 
weight to the people than the other is willing to concede. 
But it is impossible that either can deliberately conceive, 
that the church can, in any circumstances, be separated 
from the people ; or that there is any possible advantage 
which can be secured to the church, as a church, which 
does not derive every portion of its value from its sub- 
serviency to the general edification of the people. 

The questions relating to patronage, and the induction 
of parochial ministers, have certainly formed the leading 
features of the ecclesiastical proceedings in Scotland, dur- 
ing the course of the last century. 

But it must not be from thence concluded, that no 



96 



other subjects have occupied the attention or the zeal 
of the Church Courts. The pastoral discipline of the 
church ; the provision made for the instruction of the 
people, and for the preservation of their morals ; the edu- 
cation and trial of candidates for the ministry ; the super- 
intendence of the clergy, both with regard to their pri- 
vate manners, and their pastoral duty ; and the enact- 
ment and execution of the laws and regulations, which 
the state of the church, or the condition of the people re- 
quire ; are all subjects of perpetual interest and attention, 
both in the Supreme Ecclesiastical Court, and in the in- 
ferior judicatories of the church. 

On all these points, the inferior judicatories have their 
place in the government of the church, as well as the Ge- 
neral Assembly ; and, as has been already stated, their 
sentences are all subject to review, and may be brought 
to the Assembly as the court of last resort. 

But on this subject it ought to be stated, that, what- 
ever the influence of party spirit may be on party ques- 
tions, it has seldom, indeed, been found to interfere with 
the administration of justice, or with the treatment of in- 
dividuals in private causes. Like the members of every 
society, the members of Church Courts may sometimes 
feel an influence, of which their own minds are scarcely 
conscious. But all private views and party feelings are 
universally disavowed, in the exercise of the discipline of 
the church; and they can seldom, indeed, be imputed 
with any degree of reason or truth. It can scarcely be 
denied, by any person competent to form a sound judg- 



1 



97 



ment, that, in Scotland, ecclesiastical discipline and order 
are as efficiently and impartially protected and preserved, 
as in any other country of Christendom.* 

There is no occasion to be more particular on this 
head. And the only other subject, which requires to be 
stated, relates to the superintendence of the clergy ; 
which is as complete and effectual, by the constitution 
and practice of the Scottish Church, as in any church of 
the Christian world, and will be found stated in a note 
below.f 

* The public meetings of the Church Courts, and especially the an- 
nual meetings of the General Assemblies, are of themselves of great im- 
portance to the best interests of the country. The publicity of their de- 
bates, in which every real or supposed abuse or improvement which has 
been attempted in the country, or which may affect the condition of the 
people, can be brought into free discussion, is, independent of the imme- 
diate result of any debate, a constant source of national advantages, 
which experience has shown to be of incalculable value. 

+ The late Dr Claudius Buchannan, in his Christian Researches, (p. 
Ill,) has represented the Syrian Bishop of Malabar, as questioning him 
with regard to the constitution of the church in this part of the British 
Island. When the Bishop was told by Dr Buchannan, that the presby- 
tery, or (as he called them) the casheeshas, were all equal to each other, 
he is represented as asking, with evident surprise, u What ! is there no- 
body to overlook the casheeshas ?" and when he received for answer, 
" not one," as having replied, e > There must be something imperfect 
there." 

It is impossible to read this statement without astonishment. Dr Bu- 
channan might be ignorant of the constitution of the church of his own 
country. But he ought to have known, that every minister in Scotland 
is under the perpetual superintendence of the presbytery to which he be- 
longs, subject to the review and control of the synod, and the General 
Assembly : That, by the forms of the constitution, every individual 

G 



98 



This sketch has already been extended far beyond the 
bounds originally allotted to it. Many other points 
might have been adverted to, in the constitution and prac- 
tice of the Scottish Church, which would have rendered 
the detail more interesting, and the information, to those 
who are acquainted with the subject, more complete. The 
Author is sensible, besides, that there are many defects, 
both in the substance and the composition of it, for which 

minister is obliged to answer in each of these courts, both for his private 
conduct and the discharge of his pastoral functions; and that the super- 
intendence over him, so far from being a dead letter in the constitutional 
law, has at all times been in strict and uniform practice, so as to reach the 
morals and the clerical functions of every individual, as often as the cir- 
cumstances have required it. No man who is a competent judge of the 
subject, or of the condition of the Scottish clergy, can be ignorant of this 
fact, or of the faithful application of the law where it is requisite : To 
watch the conduct of the ministers of the church ; to investigate every 
charge which can be brought against them ; and, without respect of per- 
sons, to apply to their conduct the censures of the church— admonition, 
suspension, and deprivation — as often as such censures become necessary. 

The superintendence, under which the ministers of the Scottish Church 
have been placed, by their constitutional law, which is as strictly adhered 
to, at the present time, as at any period of her history, is ten times more 
efficient than the superintendence of any individual has ever been in the 
Christian Church. Dr Buchannan had not spent much of his life in Scot- 
land, and was certainly unacquainted with the subject which he professed 
to explain ; though his mistatement with regard to the Scottish Church, 
whatever the cause or the design of it was, can certainly, where it is un- 
derstood, add nothing to the honours of Episcopacy. The Episcopal 
Churches have many advantages of their own, and have certainly no 
occasion to have recourse to such meretricious distinctions, as the repre- 
sentation given to the Syrian Bishop might appear to bestow on them.* 



* See Note F. 



99 



he must trust to the indulgence of his readers, and which 
it is much easier to account for than to vindicate. 

At the same time, he trusts, that enough has heen 
stated to serve as a general outline, hoth of the princi- 
ples on which the ecclesiastical constitution of Scotland 
is framed, and of its practical effects on the condition of 
the country. 

The same spirit of liberty and independence, and the 
same consideration for the condition of the people, which 
have been recognized by the British Government, since 
the Revolution in 1688, are incorporated with the origi- 
nal laws and institutions of the Scottish Church. But, 
what is of much greater importance under the laws exist- 
ing, the instruction and edification of the people, and the 
best means of guarding the purity of their morals, have, 
at all times, been the chief objects professedly attended to, 
both by the Ecclesiastical Courts, and by the parochial 
clergy. 

The members of the church, like all fallible men, may 
often differ about the means of doing most practical good, 
or of preventing practical evils. But this must be im- 
puted to the imperfection of human nature, and of every 
thing which depends on the agency of human beings, 
rather than to any radical defects in the constitution of 
the church. 

Amidst all the diversities of opinion, and the division 
of parties on particular subjects, which appear in the pre- 
ceding pages, it cannot be denied, by those who are com- 
petent to judge on the subject, that the practical effect 
of the church establishment in Scotland, on the general 



100 



information of the people, on their private morals, and 
on their religious character, equals, if it does not surpass, 
whatever can be imputed, in the same points, to any other 
church in the world. 

This is the most important fact which can be stated ; 
and, in comparison with this fact, every other feature in 
the laws or practice of any ecclesiastical body is equally 
unimportant and uninteresting. 



NOTES. 



Note A, p. 5« 

It will not, perhaps, be useless, to mention generally the prepa- 
ratory studies and qualifications required in candidates for the mi- 
nistry, in the Church of Scotland. They were at all times in sub- 
stance what they are at present ; and it will be sufficient for the 
purpose of this note, to mention the general law on the subject, as 
it now stands, without taking notice of minute regulations, origin- 
ating in particular cases, and introduced at different times. 

A young man, intended for the Church, after completing his edu- 
cation at a grammar school, is required, before he enters on the study 
of theology, to attend a university for at least four years. During 
that time, he is supposed to complete his studies in the Greek and 
humanity* classes, and afterwards to apply to the study of logic, 
moral philosophy, and natural philosophy, taking, along with these, 
any other branch of knowledge with which the university furnishes 
him, subservient to his studies in these different departments. 

He is not allowed to become a student in theology, till he has 
completed the course of literature and philosophy. He is then placed 
in the divinity college; and besides the prelections in theology 
which he must attend, he has also to study in the classes of church 
history and Oriental languages. 

This course of study in theology requires an attendance of four 
years ; and till it is completed, he cannot be received on probation- 
ary trials, or receive a license to preach. 

If his attendance on the divinity college has not been uniform or 
regular, a longer period of study is required. But in all ordinary 

* Literce Humaniores. 



4 



102 



cases, a license to preach cannot be applied for, till after the study 
of at least eight years, (including the classical and philosophical 
course,) at one or other of the universities. 

After this time, a young man is proposed to the presbytery under 
which he resides, as a proper person to be received on probationary 
trials, with a view to his receiving the character of a preacher ; and 
he must then produce regular certificates from the university, not 
only of his attendance during the time prescribed by law, but of his 
good character, and of his having performed the exercises required 
in the divinity college. The proposal of receiving him on trials 
must lie at least a month on the table, before it is considered, that 
time may be given to enquire into the character of the candidate. 
If, at the next meeting, there is no objection made to him, he is 
then examined, either by the presbytery or by a committee, on the 
whole extent of his preparatory studies — on bis classical, philoso- 
phical, and theological knowledge. This examination is intended to 
be private ; and if the candidate does not acquit himself to the satis- 
faction of his private exarainators, he is remitted by them to his 
studies, and his name is not again mentioned to the presbytery till 
he becomes better informed. If, on the other hand, the candidate 
appears to possess the requisite information, the presbytery, before 
they take any other step, is then obliged to write circular letters to 
every presbytery within the bounds of the synod to which it be- 
longs, intimating the intention of taking the young man on proba- 
tionary trials, if the consent of the synod shall be obtained. This 
must be done at least two months before the meeting of the synod. 
If the synod, from any thing supposed doubtful or exceptionable in 
the character of the candidate, shall refuse to consent, the measure 
cannot be persisted in by the presbytery, though there may be an 
appeal to the Assembly. 

It is scarcely conceivable, that better or more effectual precautions 
can be taken, to prevent the reception of improper persons on pro- 
bationary trials. 

But, after all this has been done, if the synod allows the candi- 
date to be received, his qualifications are still to be tried. Five dis- 
courses at least are prescribed to him, which he has to deliver in 



103 



public before the presbytery ; one of them a Latin, and another a 
Greek exercise ; one an exposition of a portion of scripture, and 
two discourses on scriptural texts. He is then publicly examined 
on his knowledge of theology, church history, Greek and Latin ; or, 
according to a late practice, these questionary trials are taken before 
the public discourses. And it is not till he has acquitted himself to 
the satisfaction of the presbytery, on every one of these points of 
trial, that he can receive a license to preach. 

No institution administered by human beings is so perfect as not 
to fail in particular instances. But there is no church in Christen- 
dom, in which more effectual precautions are taken, to prevent the 
introduction of improper persons into the clerical functions. 

After a candidate has been licensed to preach, he is not put into 
full orders till he is to be inducted into a parochial charge ; and this 
is not done till he submits to a new trial of his qualifications before 
the presbytery, within whose jurisdiction the parish to which he is 
presented is situated. The substance of the trials, prescribed for 
ordination, is the same with those which are required for a license 
to preach. 

Note B, p. 5. 

The establishment of parochial schoolmasters in every part of the 
kingdom, has given the great body of the people of Scotland advan- 
tages, which no other country in Europe has hitherto possessed in 
the same degree. And for these advantages, Scotland is exclusively 
indebted to the administration under King William. 

In 1693, an act of Parliament, entitled, " An Act for Settling the 
Quiet and Peace of the Church," inter alia, " declared, That all 
schoolmasters, and teachers of youth in schools, are and shall be 
liable to the trial, judgment, and censure of the presbyteries of the 
bounds, for their sufficiency, qualifications, and deportment in the 
said office." 

This legislative provision secured a leading point in the system of 
Scotch education, the qualifications of the persons entrusted with the 
management of schools. 



104 



But the whole system was arranged and completed by another 
act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1699, which provided, that 
there should be a parochial school and schoolmaster in every parish 
of the kingdom, with a fixed salary, payable by the landholders, in 
proportions taken from the valued rent of their landed estates ; and 
giving the schoolmaster the power of recovering his salary by legal 
diligence. The schoolmaster was also authorised to exact fees from 
the scholars ; and when these, moderate as they always were, were 
added to the salary, while no unreasonable burden was laid on the 
parishioners, (who, excepting paupers, could all afford to pay what 
was demanded, without any material hardship,) the provision made 
for the schoolmasters was, at that time, by no means inadequate, or 
tlisproportioned to the expense of living. 

The system which was established by means of these acts of Par- 
liament has attained its object so completely, that, for more than a 
century after the enactments, the great body of the people have been 
better educated in Scotland, than in any other division of Christen- 
dom. The power to read and write, and an acquaintance with the 
elements of arithmetic, were placed within the reach of almost every 
individual ; while all orders of the people have been taught to read 
the Bible from their earliest years, and with the assistance of the 
catechisms regularly taught in every school, have received the rudi- 
ments of a religious education, such as they could not have had the 
same means of obtaining in any other country of the world. 

Besides these advantages, for the greatest part of the last century, 
there were few parishes, in which the schoolmasters were not quali- 
fied to give instruction in the Latin language, to such as were desir- 
ous to receive a grammar school education ; and a very considerable 
number of individuals throughout the kingdom have, from 1696 
down to the present time, been prepared for the universities, in the 
schools of the parishes where they were born- 

From all these circumstances, the parochial schools of Scotland 
must be considered by every dispassionate man, as having secured 
advantages of incalculable value, to the great mass of the inhabit- 
ants : Advantages, which have added as much to the comfort and 



105 



capacities of those who have remained at home, as they have contri- 
buted to give respectability and distinction to those who have re- 
sorted to other countries. 

The change which time has produced on the value of money, has 
no doubt reduced the emoluments of the schoolmasters, below the 
proportion which they ought to have preserved, to the progress of 
other professions and situations ; and has of necessity had a natural 
effect to lower the qualifications of those who were willing to ac- 
cept of them. 

Under this persuasion, they who took the management of Scotch 
affairs obtained a new act of Parliament in 1803, which was intend- 
ed to add to the emoluments of the schoolmasters, and to render 
their situations more independent and respectable. 

But the inconsiderable addition, which was made by this act to 
the salaries, has not gone far to remedy the evil; and some new re- 
gulations contained in it have injured, rather than improved, the 
establishment. 

If the parochial schools are to be supported, so as to answer their 
original design, the gentlemen and clergy of Scotland will soon find 
it necessary to apply for a new act of Parliament, to prevent the ad- 
vantages, which have added so much to the prosperity and to the 
character of their country, from being lost or impaired to their pos- 
terity. 

Note C, p. 6. 

To those who are unacquainted with the nature of church bene- 
fices in Scotland, it may be useful to mention, that besides his sti- 
pend, which, with the exception of burghs, is paid in general from 
the tithes, according to a certain modification, (which it would re- 
quire more room to explain than can be given in a note,) every mini- 
ster of a country parish has a right to a manse (a parsonage house) 
and a glebe, furnished at the expense of the heritors. The glebe 
must consist of at least four acres of arable land, and as much grass 
land as is sufficient for the sustenance of two cows and a horse. 
The heritors are bound to build the manse, and keep it in repair, at 
the sight of the presbytery of the district. But the sentences of the 



106 



presbyteries, relative to manses and glebes, (being matters of statu- 
tory civil jurisdiction,) are all subject to the review of the Court of 
Session. 

Note D, p. 10. 

It will be seen from a foot-note, afterwards inserted,* that the 
superintendence of the clergy by the presbyteries, the synods, and 
the General Assembly, is equally watchful and efficient both with 
regard to their personal conduct, and their pastoral functions. The 
superintendence of the morals of the people at large is placed under 
the appellate jurisdiction of the same Ecclesiastical Courts; but is 
primarily entrusted to the kirk-session of each parish, from whose 
sentences there lies an appeal to the Superior Courts. In cases of 
peculiar atrocity, however, the kirk-sessions are required to consult 
the presbyteries, and receive their instructions, before they take any 
steps with a view to judicial proceedings. And in some instances, 
they must go back to the presbyteries, before they pronounce a 
final sentence. 

Note E, p. 30. 

Mr Lockhart of Lee was the person claiming the patronage, whose 
presentation the presbytery sustained. His predecessors had been 
seised in the patronage since the year 1647. In 1708, when the 
last vacancy occurred, though the family could not then by law pre- 
sent to the benefice, as the act 1 690 was in force, they had exercised 
the right of the patron to dispose of the vacant stipend, (which that 
act had not taken away,) without question or resistance. On the 
other hand, it was not pretended, that, since 1647, when they were 
infeft in the patronage, the Crown, who now claimed it, had one 
act of possession to plead. The family of Lee and their authors 
were the only patrons whom the presbytery found on their record. 

After the question as to the right of patronage had been decided, 
and that relating to the induction of the minister came before the 

* In pages 97, 98. And see also Note F. 



107 



Court of Session, it was pleaded for Mr Lockhart of Lee, or rather 
for his presentee, that every patron in possession is entitled to retain 
and enjoy his patronage till he is legally dispossessed ; that from the 
documents produced to the presbytery, added to those which were 
found on their own record, he had a legal right to present to the 
vacant benefice ; and that, even though his right was challenged be- 
fore collation was given, his presentation was notwithstanding legal- 
ly entitled to be made effectual for that vice, and could not be ren- 
dered invalid after execution, by any subsequent decree setting aside 
his right of patronage. In support of this doctrine were quoted, 
" Lambertinus de jure patronatus, Lib. ii. Part 1, Qusest. 3. Art. 4. 
—Jacob's Law Dictionary.— Reg. Maj. Lib. 3, Cap. 33." 

It was pleaded, on the same side of the bar, for the presbytery, 
that they had complied with the direction of law, when they admit- 
ted the presentee of the patron in possession, and, as far as they 
were instructed by the documents before them, of the only legal 
patron : That, though the law requires a presbytery to admit the 
presentee of the patron, it has given them no remedy, in the case of 
competing patrons, by which they can bring the claims in competi- 
tion before the Civil Courts: That the jurisdiction which the law 
has given them implies, that they must have a power of judging of 
the rights of competing patrons, prima instantia, to the effect of ex- 
plicating that jurisdiction : That their judgment must of course have 
the effect to determine the settlement of the Church pro hac vice, 
and after execution to exclude every claim for vacant stipend : That 
the application of this doctrine does not prevent the parties from 
bringing their civil rights to trial afterwards, or from obtaining a 
judgment of the Civil Court to settle them in all time coming; 
whereas, if the presbyteries have not the right of determining pro 
hac vice, as the opposite doctrine affirms, it would follow of neces- 
sity, that they cannot comply with the law which requires them to 
induct a presentee, in any case where there is a competition for the 
right of patronage ; and that, in this way, parishes might be kept 
vacant for many years, during the protracted litigations of compet- 
ing patrons : That if patrons should sometimes suffer by erroneous 
judgments pronounced by presbyteries, they would, in such instan- 



108 



ces, have only their own negligence to blame, because they ought to 
have taken measures to settle their rights of patronage before the 
vacancies occurred ; and that they have not only no ground for 
complaint, when the presbyteries induct the presentees, who appear 
to them, from the documents before them, to have the best title, 
but can have no right to avail themselves of their own negligence to 
protract the vacancies by litigation, so as to deprive the parishioners, 
in the mean time, of all the advantages of pastoral care : And, final- 
ly, that the power claimed by the presbytery of Lanark was no new 
or unfounded pretension : That the same power Avas uniformly ex- 
ercised by the bishops in Scotland as long as Episcopacy was esta- 
blished ; and that the presbyteries, coming in place of the bishops, 
must be vested with the same jurisdiction. 

These arguments were completely successful in the Court of Ses- 
sion, who unanimously found that the minister inducted had a legal 
title to the benefice. 

The same arguments, afterwards pleaded on an appeal at the bar 
of the House of Lords, were not equally successful there. Lord 
Hardwicke, who was then the Lord Chancellor, reversed the judg- 
ment of the Court of Session, chiefly on a ground which none of the 
parties had anticipated ; and which, not having at all occurred to 
the counsel who had pleaded the case for the respondent, could not 
be met by any thing which had fallen from the bar. Lord Hard- 
wicke said, that he could not conceive, how a Scotch bishop could 
have been possessed of a power or jurisdiction, which an English 
bishop never had. Though the answer is very obvious, that they 
lived under very different constitutions, and as bishops had, in this 
point, and many others, a very different jurisdiction, there was no 
opportunity of making this reply. The decree of reversal was in 
consequence pronounced ; and whether it was well or ill founded, this 
decision has ever since been held as having laid down the law on the 
subject. 

At the same time, the following anecdote may be relied on, 
although> as the question of law has now for such a length of time 
been understood to be settled, it is perhaps no longer of any im- 
portance. 



109 



The counsel who pleaded for the presentee to Lanark, and who 
belonged to the English bar, was so thoroughly convinced that the 
decision was wrong, and that the Lord Chancellor had misappre- 
hended the point on which he had rested it, that he afterwards asked 
his Lordship to give him an opportunity, for his own satisfaction, to 
converse with him privately on the subject. He was the more 
solicitous to have this opportunity, that at first he had himself been 
with difficulty persuaded to relinquish his English prejudices, in fa- 
vour of the powers claimed for the presbyteries in Scotland, and as- 
serted to have belonged to the Scotch bishops ; but was ultimately 
so thoroughly persuaded that the doctrine was sound, that he 
thought he should either be able to satisfy Lord Hardwicke that the 
decision was not founded in law, or would hear from his Lordship a 
reason to convince him, that his own opinion had been too hastily 
adopted. Lord Hardwicke very readily gave him the opportunity 
which he requested. The result was, that he so completely con- 
vinced liis Lordship that he had taken up an English idea, not ap- 
plicable to the law of Scotland, and that the ground on which he 
had chiefly rested his decision was untenable, that he candidly ac- 
knowledged his mistake ; and requested him to say to the clergy- 
man chiefly concerned, whom he had seen at the bar, that he was 
afraid he had done him an injury by an involuntary mistake, which 
he had not the power of correcting ; but trusted that he would be 
candid enough to believe, that he had acted conscientiously at the 
time, and sincerely intended to do justice to all the parties. 

This anecdote the writer of this note received from Dr Dick, the 
clergyman in question, a very few weeks before his death. He had 
been translated from Lanark to Edinburgh in 1754 ; and, even at 
that distant period, (in 1782,) he mentioned this history of his case 
in the House of Lords, with a considerable degree of emotion. He 
had suffered severely from the litigation. He had entered into life 
more independent than most of his brethren. But the expense of 
living at Lanark for the greatest part of four years without a sti- 
pend, added to the expense of the lawsuit, which (excepting the as- 
sistance which he got from the public funds of the church at the dis- 
posal of the Assembly) fell entirely on himself, had nearly exhaust- 



no 



ed his resources before he was translated to Edinburgh ; and mate- 
rially affected his private comfort to the end of his life.* 

Dr Dick was unquestionably one of the ablest and most distin- 
guished men, whom the Scottish Church has ever possessed. The 
extent of his knowledge, the correctness of his taste, the vigour of 
his talents, his capacity for the business of active life, and the power- 
ful, chaste, and commanding eloquence, in which he had so few com- 
petitors, raised him far above the level of the greatest part of his 
contemporaries. Not unconscious of his own superiority, he had a 
strength of principle, and a delicacy of feeling, which often prevent- 
ed him from asserting his just pretensions, and which gave his cha- 
racter a dignity and pre-eminence, of which every individual who 
associated with him was conscious. 

His eloquence in public debate was of the highest order : heard 
indeed but seldom, and never on insignificant subjects — but when it 
did break forth, the splendid and vigorous eloquence of intellect and 
feeling, supported by dignity of manner and powers of language, 
which the ablest of his opponents felt to be irresistible. In a higher 
situation he would have been equal to all that superiority of talents 
can achieve. In the situation which Providence assigned him, he 
was less fortunate than many of his inferiors ; and, conscious that 
he was so, he exerted himself less than he ought to have done. 

But he knew how to preserve his high-minded dignity and inde- 

* Before this subject is dismissed, it should be mentioned, that, independent of every 
question of law, the opposition made to Dr Dick's settlement at Lanark was the effect 
of a political intrigue, conducted bv the magistrates of Lanark, supported by the officers 
of the crown. The magistrates at first claimed the patronage to themselves, and offer- 
ed a presentation to the presbytery. But, sensible that their claim could not be sustain- 
ed, they had influence to obtain a presentation from the crown in favour of the same in- 
dividual whom they had presented. Their own presentation was not insisted on ; and 
all the subsequent litigation for the patronage was between the crown and Mr Lockhart 
of Lee. The party politics of the burgh, and hostility to the family of Lee, had an influ- 
ence at Lanark, stronger than the merits of any question at issue. 

There have been doubts in later times, whether even the right of patronage was then 
decided as it ought to have been. It has been understood, that the patronage of Lanark 
was not the only one of which the family of Lee were in possession by the same tenure. 
But the crown has never attempted another challenge, and will not probably be forward 
to bring the decision given in the case of Lanark into question, by another claim on the 
same grounds. 



Ill 



pendence, when he was most disappointed ; and as a man of sterling 
worth and probity, who never could bend his integrity to his inter- 
est, or seek by adulation or sycophancy the advantages which were 
due to his talents, he lived in the humble situation to which Provi- 
dence confined him, cheerful and contented among his friends, happy 
in his family, and universally respected and looked up to by the 
whole community of Edinburgh ; till death suddenly and premature- 
ly put an end to his honourable life, in 1782, at the age of sixty-one. 

The writer of this note confesses, that, from habits of intimacy 
and affection, he regarded Dr Dick, for the last seven years of his life, 
with the greatest veneration, and cannot but be partial to his me- 
mory. He has perhaps exceeded the proper bounds in this account 
of him ; and even in his history of the case of Lanark. He trusts 
that some allowance will be made for a feeling, which has given him 
an irresistible inclination to do some justice to the character of one, 
whom he can never cease to remember with gratitude and reverence. 

Note F, p. 98. 

Besides the superintendence of the pastoral functions and personal 
conduct of the clergy, after they are in possession of their benefices, 
which is vested in the Ecclesiastical Courts, there is another power 
entrusted to the presbyteries, which is intended to protect the church 
and the people, against the introduction of clergymen who are of 
exceptionable or doubtful characters. 

Before a minister can be inducted to a benefice, intimation must 
be made from the pulpit of the parish, that on the day appointed for 
his ordination or admission, (that is, for his collation to the pastoral 
cure and the benefice,) any individual parishioner may state to the 
presbytery any objections to his life or doctrine, which he may 
think relevant, of which the presbytery are afterwards to judge. 

When that day arrives, intimation is made at the principal door 
of the church, that, if there are any objections to be made to his life 
or doctrine, the presbytery are met in an adjoining house, ready to 
near and decide on them. But in this case, the diet is peremptory ; 
the objections, if they are made, must be verified instanter ; and if 



112 



there are any witnesses to support them, they must be in attendance, 
and ready to be produced for examination. 

If the presbytery should find that the objections are relevant, and 
are proved, they have authority to sist their procedure, and to re- 
fuse to go on to the induction. If the objections stated are frivo- 
lous or unfounded, or if the proof offered is insufficient to sustain 
them, they are of course dismissed, and the induction is completed. 

These forms are uniformly and strictly observed, and cannot go 
into desuetude. There are not many instances, indeed, in which 
presbyteries find it necessary to sist their procedure at the return of 
an edict ; though some examples there have been, at no remote pe- 
riod. But every one must see the efficiency of the law, wherever 
there can be a substantial reason for having recourse to it. 

So effectual and complete is the superintendence, under which the 
Scottish clergy hold their situations in the church. 



FINIS. 



EDINBURGH : 
JAMES CLARKE & CO. PRINTERS. 



